A cult icon goes quiet
Subaru fans still talk about the WRX STI like it’s a legend lost too soon. The rally-born performance car disappeared from global lineups in 2022, with Subaru citing the ever-tightening grip of emissions regulations as the culprit. Since then, Subaru’s focus has shifted to what sells: rugged SUVs and EVs built in collaboration with Toyota. But behind the scenes, the STI name hasn’t been buried. It’s just been evolving.
Subaru’s new formula
At the 2025 New York Auto Show, Subaru Europe’s boss, David Dello Stritto, laid out a bold new vision. In his words, Subaru’s identity boils down to three things: “safe, fun, and tough.” But there’s a fourth piece missing, he says: power and performance.
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“Ask the average person what Subaru means, and they’ll say STI. You can’t disassociate this from Subaru,” Stritto told Autocar. “We need to bring sportiness back to Subaru.”
With gas-powered performance off the table in emissions-constrained Europe, Stritto believes electrification offers a new path to performance, with fewer compromises. “Europe says you can’t [build an STI], because you have a GPF [gasoline particulate filter] that can literally choke your engine.” That’s why Subaru’s next-generation STI, or something like it, will be electric from the ground up.
EVs open the door to new kinds of speed
Subaru has been teasing its electric ambitions for years. At the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon, it unveiled the 1,073-horsepower STI E-RA concept: a brutal, track-focused EV meant to showcase what an electric performance car could do. A year later, the company filed a trademark for “STe” in Germany, hinting at a rebranding of its STI performance division for the EV age.
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Stritto says the STI name itself isn’t guaranteed for the new electric halo car, but that’s beside the point. “The STI spirit lives on anyway,” he said. “If you change the last letter, I don’t think that would make a huge difference.” And while nothing’s officially greenlit, the message is clear: the next great Subaru performance car will be powered by electrons, not gasoline.
Before speed, stability
There’s a catch, though. Subaru isn’t going full throttle just yet. Stritto says the company must first stabilize its core business — namely, selling crossovers and SUVs. “I need volume first. I need to sell my SUVs. They need to make money,” Stritto said. “We all need to get back on track. It’s a very difficult moment, but once things get settled, we can afford the luxury of looking for that new halo model and please that very important subset of our customers.”
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That said, the groundwork is already being laid. Subaru is developing new electric vehicles on a shared platform with Toyota, just like it did with the BRZ and GT86 a decade ago. The new Trailseeker EV, recently revealed in New York, is part of that same joint venture and could provide a launchpad for a future electric sports car.
Final thoughts
Stritto isn’t shy about what he wants. “Let’s face it, it’s nice to have that prospect of a future WRC STI – super-fast, gold wheels, blue color. This is what we want, at the end of the day.”
If that vision becomes reality, it would mark a dramatic but fitting evolution for the STI legacy: from gravel stages and turbochargers to battery packs and instant torque. It won’t sound the same, it won’t drive the same, but it just might feel the same. And for Subaru loyalists hungry for performance, that could be enough.