Is Subaru getting Weird again?

A couple of weeks ago now, Subaru unveiled their Sport Mobility Concept at the Tokyo Mobility Show.  This concept car that Subaru says shows the future direction they plan to go with their EV's was under a flying Subaru concept which was basically a car sized drone that you can fly/drive.

We need to talk about this because it looks like Subaru is getting weird again and that is a good thing.

It could actually be a great thing actually.

But first, we need to set the Way-Back Machine to 1985.

Why?  Because to fully appreciate the potential of this, we need to go back and look at the 1985 Subaru XT.  This was a car that was a 2-door coupe Sports Car with available push-button 4-Wheel Drive, and had an optional 4 cylinder Turbo Charged engine.

And a lot of the design of this car was weird. 

Heck, Doug DeMuro just put out a 20 minute video detailing how weird this car is.

But you also have to remember how much of a departure the XT was from anything that Subaru had put out to that point.  A great example of this is the commercial that Subaru put out at the time for the XT.

Did the XT become one of Subaru's best selling cars ever?  Not really, but it did well enough for them to update the car later with a 6-cylinder engine which made more power than the 4-cylinder turbo engine.

And the XT6 was the foundation of the SVX, which was also was a bit of a weird car.  From there, Subaru started to focus more and more on performance, and what they could do with a Turbocharged AWD platform.  

The point here is that Subaru decided to take a big chance and think outside of the box with the XT, and that car and idea laid the foundation for many if not all of the Subaru Sports cars that followed.  Would there be a WRX and STI without the XT?  I don't think so.

So with that in mind, take another look at the Sport Mobility concept.  Sure, it looks a bit like a Nissan GTR, and maybe the SVX as well.  But there are a couple of hints of the XT in there as well, and the concept of a small, sporty,  2-door chassis with All Wheel Drive is certainly relevant.

Most importantly though, it is different in design and purpose from anything that Subaru is making currently. 

Now that Subaru has new Leadership both in the US and Japan, this could indicate that they are willing to take inspiration from the times when Subaru decided to take a chance and do something different, unexpected, and weird.  To do that, they would have to break out of their conservative norms, and we might end up with another car that redefines our expectations of what Subaru can do and is like to drive.

With so many of the current EV's sharing platforms and being so similar, I'd say that is exactly what Subaru needs to do as a matter of fact.  They need to make an EV that re-defines Subaru the way that the XT did back in 1985.

If Subaru remembers how important it is for them to set themselves apart, then hopefully the next STI will look just like the E-Ra, and will make close to 1,000 hp...

And a new version of the Sport Mobility Concept that is a sports coupe in the spirit of the XT that could be a Grand Touring version of the STI too, for those of us that want to have fun, but don't want to give up as much comfort in the process as we used to.

I for one am hoping that they are ready to push some boundaries, make a really fast and fun EV, that has just enough weird to set it apart.

- Jon cooley