2027 Subaru Forester Wilderness Hybrid Seems Like The No-Brainer Choice

Since its first Wilderness models came out in 2021, Subaru has sold almost 250,000 of the things through 2025, proving that there really is a market for even more rugged versions of the most genuinely outdoorsy car brand. (Don't argue with me, you know it's true.) The Outback has been the most popular of the three current Wilderness models, with over 106,000 sold since 2021, while there have been more than 84,000 Forester Wildernesses sold since 2021, and more than 55,000 of the Crosstrek Wilderness that came out in 2023.

Last year, Subaru introduced the Wilderness version of the new-generation Forester alongside the hybrid version of the regular Forester, so it seemed like only a matter of time until Subaru came out with a hybrid Forester Wilderness. That time has come, it seems, with the 2027 Subaru Forester Wilderness Hybrid having just made its debut at the New York auto show. Don't expect any real surprises here, but with 25% better fuel economy and almost no downsides, going for the hybrid version of the Forester Wilderness feels like a no-brainer choice.

Full disclosure: Subaru invited me to drive out to Malibu to check out the Forester Wilderness Hybrid and new Getaway a few weeks before their reveals in New York, and fed me a nice dinner.

Powering the Forester Wilderness Hybrid is the exact same Toyota-derived (but very modified) setup as the normal Forester. The engine is the 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder that you know from the regular Forester and Wilderness, with a 1.1-kWh battery pack under the cargo floor. Subaru takes its symmetrical all-wheel drive stuff very seriously, so instead of the engine powering just the front wheels and an electric motor being used for the rear axle, like on other hybrid crossovers, the Forester Wilderness has two motor-generator units integrated in the continuously variable automatic transmission to keep the full-time AWD.

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One motor does the engine start/stop and charges the battery from the engine, while the other does regenerative braking and sends drive power to the wheels, and there's a planetary gearset between them. That larger motor sends its power through an electronically controlled center differential and propshaft, keeping the physical connection between all four wheels. That's beneficial for the sort of off-roading Subaru anticipates its Wilderness customers will do. The hybrid only sees a modest boost to 194 horsepower, up from 180 in normal Foresters, but despite the extra juice of electric motor torque it probably won't be any quicker.

The Wilderness gets Subaru's X-Mode system that has Snow/Dirt and Deep Snow/Mud settings, along with hill-descent control. There's no ground clearance penalty for going hybrid, with the electrified Wilderness having the same 9.3 inches as the gas-only one, as well as the same approach and departure angles, though the breakover angle is slightly worse. The Yokohama Geolandar all-terrain tires give the regular Wilderness worse fuel-economy ratings than other Foresters, but the Wilderness Hybrid should get around 32 mpg, beating all the other non-hybrid Foresters and only a couple of mpg off the non-Wilderness hybrid.

Aside from the powertrain, everything about the Forester Wilderness Hybrid is the same as the regular Wilderness. The exterior styling is pretty wacky and plastic-heavy, in a way that I think actually works, and those tall roof rails have a static load capacity of 800 pounds. The Wilderness badges have the word hybrid on them, but that's the only tell of what you're looking at. Inside, the vertical 11.6-inch touchscreen that's been a staple in Subaru models for years now, looks and feels even worse, especially now that we've seen the new higher-mounted system in the redesigned Outback. There's no penalty for cargo space at least, with the hybrid having the same 27.5 cubic feet with the rear seats up as the standard Wilderness.

We won't have pricing until closer to the launch, but I'm guessing the hybrid will be around $3,000 more than the regular Forester Wilderness, which starts at $39,835. The Forester Hybrid's other trims are all about $1,500 more than their non-hybrid counterparts, and the Wilderness Hybrid will come with a few features that are part of a commonly-chosen $2,200 package on the standard Wilderness: a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster with Apple Maps integration, a Harman Kardon sound system, TomTom navigation and a power tailgate.

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Instead of going the Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 route and making the off-roady models only available as hybrids, and putting aside the pretty mild price difference, Subaru says there are two reasons for offering both gas-only and hybrid versions of the Wilderness: The first is that the hybrid will have worse towing capacity; we don't know the exact figure yet, but the normal Wilderness can tow 3,500 pounds while other Foresters (hybrids included) can only tow 1,500 pounds. The second reason is that the Wilderness Hybrid won't have a full-size spare tire, but the normal Wilderness does.

I guess I can understand that there are a small subset of buyers for whom those two things would be dealbreakers, but I'm guessing the majority of Wilderness customers will happily spend the extra money to get better fuel economy and nicer off-road driving characteristics. Subaru says the 2027 Forester Wilderness Hybrid will go on sale in late 2026.