On the first day of the 2025 Tokyo motor show, Subaru took the wraps off two quite different performance car concepts: the Performance-E STI and Performance-B STI.
Both cars are finished in the signature blue colour closely associated with the days when Subaru and Mitsubishi were locked in mortal combat on rally courses across the world.
It’s the Performance-B STI Concept that strikes all the nostalgia keys, though, as it melds the front end of the current WRX with the passenger and cargo compartments of the Impreza hatch.
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After bringing the two cars together, STI then went to town on the body by adding large wheel arch extensions at both ends, a large black bonnet scoop flanked by a pair of vents, a ground hugging aero kit, and a ginormous rear wing rising out of the rear hatch.
The concept rides on 18-inch dark grey alloy wheels around which 255/40 Bridgestone Potenza tyres are wrapped. There’s also upsized ventilated brakes with silver STI-branded calipers.
Subaru has not revealed any details about the Performance-B’s drivetrain except that it is powered by a turbocharged boxer engine that’s hooked up to the company’s Symmetrical all-wheel drive system.
Given its outlandish body kit, we hope whatever that’s powering it has a few more spuds than the 202kW/350Nm 2.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine fitted to the current WRX sedan.
Should the Performance-B STI make it into production, it will mark a return to hot hatchbacks for the brand. Ever since the WRX became a standalone model in 2015, Subaru hasn’t offered a heated up variant of the Impreza hatch.
As for the Performance-E STI, it features a bespoke body that does its best to meld sepia-tinged memories of past rally glories with the realities of a modern EV.
Like many other electric cars, the Performance-E has a slinky liftback body with slim head- and tail-lights, no upper grille, and sides unscarred by door handles.
These details stand in contrast to the wild aero kit with the pair of large winglets at the top of the tailgate, the race-spec diffuser, and the retro-adjacent gold-painted alloy wheels behind which are red STI-branded brake calipers.
Subaru hasn’t divulged any drivetrain details about the Performance-E, but from the schematics released by the company we know it has a dual-motor all-wheel drive system with the battery pack residing under the floor.
The company says the Performance-E has a next-generation suspension system that reduces bonnet height by five percent, and reduces the offset between the tyre centre and steering axis for an improved driving feel.
Should the Performance-E go into production, it’s unclear whether Subaru will go it alone and develop its own EV architecture, or use something from the Toyota stable. So far all of the company’s EVs have been rebadged and lightly restyled versions of Toyotas.
