Fuji Heavy to end 54-yr history of producing minicars next Feb.+

TOKYO, April 29 Kyodo -
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. will end its 54-year history of producing minivehicles in February next year to improve operational efficiency, company sources said Friday.
The company, which began producing automobiles with the Subaru 360 minicar in 1958, already ended the production of Subaru Stella minivehicles this month and Subaru Sambar commercial vehicles will be its last minicar line, they said.
But it will continue selling minicars by receiving supplies from Daihatsu Motor Co. under an original equipment manufacturing arrangement.
Taking advantage of aircraft manufacturing technology of the firm's predecessor company in lightening the car body, the Subaru 360 was the first minicar marketed in Japan and became popular nationwide.
The Subaru Sambar, launched about half a century ago, is also the automaker's mainstay product as it has been employed by the Akabo guild of small trucking firms.
Fuji Heavy sold about 270,000 minivehicles at its peak in fiscal 1990, but the number declined to about 93,000 in fiscal 2010.
It will turn its production lines for minicars to assembling sports cars under joint development with Toyota Motor Corp., the sources said.
==Kyodo