‘Subaru Technica International’ is a name that may have lost some of its furore with us, but it still sounds great elsewhere. The Japanese have attached the ‘STI’ denominator to their sportiest models for decades and in the not-so-distant past they also made our roads unsafe in the form of the WRX STI. Since safety has just become Subaru’s hobbyhorse in Europe, the STI designation in our region had to make way for a range of more sensible models.
STI E-RA Concept
Subaru proves that the STI philosophy is still very much alive at the Tokyo Auto Salon, where an impressive electric racing car was unveiled today. It bears the name STI E-RA Concept and manages to squeeze no less than 1,088 hp from its four Yamaha electric motors. These can individually release their power to keep the car glued to the road surface during cornering. The bottom also contains a battery pack of 60 kWh with which the E-RA should be able to defy even the longest race circuits.
That also immediately reveals the purpose of this concept car, because Subaru wants to pull this STI E-RA to the Nürburgring. There they hope to set a lap time of 400 seconds in 2023, or 6 minutes and 40 seconds. In a first phase, they will test the car this year on various circuits on home soil. So brace yourself for a series of exciting promo videos…
Solterra STI Concept
However, it becomes more concrete when you see the second study model that the STI department in Tokyo unveiled: the Subaru Solterra STI Concept. That is essentially a Solterra as we have known it for a while, but with a number of sportier accents and STI logos. It’s not entirely clear whether this is a more powerful example, but presumably this is more of a harbinger of a sports package such as Toyota also offers a ‘GR Sport’ version of various models — or does that make the link between the Subaru Solterra and the Toyota bZ4X a little too concrete?
What this STI version of the Solterra does above all, however, is give us hope for a European relaunch of the STI name. It would be so easy to give the Solterra a kind of STI line, which would immediately give the model that little bit of extra appeal. Once Subaru has earned back its sporty image, they can finally bring the new WRX STI to our market. We can only hope…
