New Subaru WRX delayed

The new Subaru WRX won’t arrive in Australia this year as scheduled, thanks to COVID-19.

Officially teased for the first time this morning ahead of its imminent global reveal, the new-generation Rex was due on sale here in late 2021.

However, Subaru Australia has confirmed to carsales that the next WRX won’t arrive Down Under until early 2022 due to COVID-related production issues including the global semi-conductor shortage.

“New generation WRX [is] now anticipated early 2022 as opposed to late 2021,” said a Subaru Australia spokesman.

But the hotly anticipated 2022 Subaru WRX, which was previously caught testing in the US and will upgrade to a new FA24 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol boxer engine producing 213kW and 412Nm, isn’t the only Subaru model affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Waiting lists for the new Subaru Outback, as well as the Forester and XV, now extend to about three months and, with the WRX, STI, BRZ and Levorg now in run-out mode before their all-new replacements arrive, stocks of all four models are in short supply.

Subaru Australia says it expects to return to normal stock levels for continuing models from September or October, and it does not plan to delay the launch of any model other than the new WRX.

Nor does it plan to discontinue any further models following the axing of the Liberty last year, or to adjust the specifications of any model variants as a result of the worldwide computer chip shortage, as BMW and Mercedes-Benz have recently done.

Subaru Australia would not say how many sales it expects to lose in 2021 due to supply issues, but did state: “It’s a dynamic situation that we continue to evaluate in conjunction with the factory in Japan.”

The new-generation Subaru BRZ and Levorg are both still due on sale here by the end of this year, followed in 2022 by the new WRX, the new WRX STI and, perhaps, turbocharged and Wilderness versions of the new Outback.