According to reports, Subaru is planning to revive the STI badge. However, there is a big catch to this, as the brand is taking a different approach to reviving the iconic moniker. The brand is planning to bring back the STI moniker in a different powertrain avatar.
The brand’s top-level management has said that there are many customers and fans who associate the STI name with the brand, and hence it is crucial to revive something that has always been synonymous with Subaru.
Sadly, the European market has somewhat discarded the enthusiast market when compared with the American market. Models like the WRX and the BRZ are no longer on sale in the European market, due to the stringent emission regulations.
This is where EVs come into play, and this is what Subaru wants to capitalize on to rejuvenate the STI moniker. According to the brand’s top-level management, electrification allows them to bring sporty models with enthusiastic acceleration characteristics and other desirable properties associated with sports cars. Subaru can also explore on bringing all-wheel configurations to their electric models.
Subaru was also asked about their partnership with Toyota in the development of future models, to which Subaru replied in the affirmative.
This whole discussion was mostly made with keeping the European market in mind, but looking at how Subaru operates globally, the same can be considered to be applied to the North American market as well. Subaru usually offers all of its models across continents, and hence, such developments can be considered to be applicable to various markets.
