New Subaru WRX, STI and BRZ at least a year away

Fans of Subaru’s performance car line-up will need to wait at least 12 months for the Impreza-based WRX and STI models to be replaced – and longer again for an all-new BRZ.

Speaking to motoring.com.au at the international launch of the all-new Forester in Japan this week, Subaru Australia managing director Colin Christie said that while rumours of a hybrid WRX STI are well established, launch timing is still a long way from being confirmed.

“Subaru has made is very clear that their focus moving forward is both SUVs and performance cars, and they’re continuing to work and develop that range,” stated Christie.

“I’m confident there will be a replacement for the WRX and STI moving forward. It’s not five to 10 years away, either, but it certainly won’t be here in the next 12 months.”

Subaru has revealed both the VIZIV Performance STI sedan (pictured) and VIZIV Tourer wagon concepts, though neither were powered by the performance-focussed petrol-electric hybrid driveline motoring.com.au understands is in the works.

“The Subaru Global Platform is designed to do everything,” Christie explained. “It will give us a performance range and an SUV range, and it will provide the perfect base from which to launch our range of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles.”

It’s understood Subaru Australia will introduce a mild-hybrid version of its new Forester before the end of next year, with “another hybrid model” to follow in 2020.

Christie would not be drawn on whether the latter would be a long-awaited performance car replacement or another hybridised SUV, but did suggest it would be a model “familiar to the existing range”.

Subaru has said previously that it will focus on the electrification of its range, as part of a record ?134 billion research development spend during the last Japanese fiscal year.

In contrast Toyota, which owns a 16.9 per cent stake of Subaru, said it will spend ?1.05 trillion on alternative power R&D by March 2019, while Honda has pledged ?750 million in the same period.

As for Subaru’s other performance model – the budget BRZ coupe it co-developed and launched with Toyota back in 2012 – it seems a replacement is even further away.

The BRZ was initially expected to be replaced as early as this year, but Christie says there is no indication of when — or if — a new BRZ will appear.

“It’s been a terrific car for us and we’re selling the best volumes we have in a long time since the facelift and tS versions arrived — those changes mean it’s still a very relevant car today,” he said.

“But there are no plans in terms of when the next BRZ would come out… I just don’t know the answer as to what comes next for it.”

That contradicts a Japanese report in April that cited unnamed sources confirming a new co-developed 86/BRZ will emerge by 2021.

Toyota 86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada told motoring.com.au in March: “We are thinking about the possibility of coming up with a new version of GT86, however, it’s not decided yet.”

Watch this space.