Subaru’s STI nameplate “not going anywhere”, electrified STe model in the works

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Subaru is busy at work developing the next STI model that will likely be electrified in some way and could wear a new STe badge. 

Speaking at the launch of the Crosstrek in Australia, Subaru’s national corporate affairs and public relations manager, Chloe Fraser, told Chasing Cars that “STI is not going anywhere”. 

“When the STI news was announced, it was very clear that STI is a brand and the engineers aren’t going away, and that they were exploring: what do future technologies look like?”

Subaru Australia has fielded a lot of questions from previous STI owners, who have been asking what’s happening and what the car could look like.

“What I always say that gives [the customers] confidence is: think about what the STI engineers – those people with all the world rally success and the different cars we have had – what they could do with electric or hybrid platforms,” Subaru Australia’s managing director Blair Read told Chasing Cars. 

“There is definitely stuff in the works”. 

“Subaru has committed to production capacity in both of those areas (hybrid and full-electric) … you could, you know, consider both of those options are definitely platform options for future performance cars for Subaru.”

STe trademark just the beginning 

One month ago, Subaru filed for the trademark ‘STe’ in Europe, giving a pretty clear indication that a performance-oriented electric could be in the works within Subaru’s engineering team. 

While the current VB generation of WRX will not receive an STI version, a future STe product could use Solterra/BZ4X underpinnings, but with performance turned up a notch or three. 

The e-TNGA Toyota platform, the basis for Subaru’s Solterra, will likely be the foundation for a Toyota sports car around 2026. So to see a Subaru STe product with a shared platform is entirely possible. 

However, it’s quite likely that by 2026, Subaru and Toyota will have created another platform entirely. 

Hybrid powertrains a real possibility  

Although simply speculation, it’s also possible that Subaru will use new hybrid technologies for a future electrified WRX STe. 

Subaru has said in the past that there are more hybrid technologies coming, so we could see high-performance hybrid versions of the current Subaru WRX’s FA24 boxer engine.

The last and final WRX STI had outputs of 221kW/407Nm, so with electric power on the side, we could feasibly see petrol-electric power and torque figures climb towards the 300kW/500Nm mark.