Subaru To Replace STI With STe For High-Performance Electric Cars

[Ultimateone]

12345
https://carbuzz.com/news/subaru-to-r...-electric-cars

[Snow Drift]

Subaru Tecnica Electrical (I made that up)

This is real:
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregiste...094/DE?lang=en

[MtnXfreeride]

Originally Posted by Snow Drift

Subaru Tecnica Electrical (I made that up)

This is real:
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregiste...094/DE?lang=en

They should have done STD since STIs were relabeled as STD a while back.

[rmbrady]

Moves like this are confusing to me. As a brand Subaru is moving more and more away from enthusiast stuff and being more focused on jacked up family haulers. That's a bummer to me, but as a business case makes perfect sense.

Why waste any time or money on this bastardization of a sub-brand? Every penny they spend on some dumb pseudo-peformance STe, is a penny that could be spent on making their core cars better.

Let's just assume they create a car that is as quick as a Model 3 Performance, I doubt they are going to be much cheaper, so why buy the Subaru? AWD is nothing special in electric cars, Subaru interiors aren't any better especially since they copied the same big dumb screen that Tesla started. Lord knows Subaru is not known for designing good looking cars. I just don't know what the driving force is behind a "performance" labeled EV from this company.

Now if STe is a hybrid like the Corvette ERay is, where the battery exists only performance, and the car comes with a manual, I'll take it all back.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[WR Blue]

just watch the lost in sale for Subaru after this brain fart. The marketing team needs to be taken into a pasture and put down. SMH! WHY!

[JustyWRC]

Originally Posted by rmbrady

Moves like this are confusing to me. As a brand Subaru is moving more and more away from enthusiast stuff and being more focused on jacked up family haulers. That's a bummer to me, but as a business case makes perfect sense.

Why waste any time or money on this bastardization of a sub-brand? Every penny they spend on some dumb pseudo-peformance STe, is a penny that could be spent on making their core cars better.

Let's just assume they create a car that is as quick as a Model 3 Performance, I doubt they are going to be much cheaper, so why buy the Subaru? AWD is nothing special in electric cars, Subaru interiors aren't any better especially since they copied the same big dumb screen that Tesla started. Lord knows Subaru is not known for designing good looking cars. I just don't know what the driving force is behind a "performance" labeled EV from this company.

Now if STe is a hybrid like the Corvette ERay is, where the battery exists only performance, and the car comes with a manual, I'll take it all back.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

You don't realize that what they learn in all of their endeavors is knowledge learned and trickled into all their cars?

Originally Posted by WR Blue

just watch the lost in sale for Subaru after this brain fart. The marketing team needs to be taken into a pasture and put down. SMH! WHY!

Riiight. Cause they have been missing it the last decade and a half.....right?

[rmbrady]

Originally Posted by JustyWRC

You don't realize that what they learn in all of their endeavors is knowledge learned and trickled into all their cars?

Of course they could learn things and it could trickle down, but wouldn't it be better to just put those things straight into the EV Forester? Is there anything that trickled down from the STi in the last 15 years. Motor, gearbox, differentials, brakes, suspension, all mothballed. None of which ever found their way to another car in the US (maybe you could say brakes on previous WRX PP, but that's currently dead as well).

I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong as a long time Subaru fan and past owner, but it feels like a mistep to me.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[chanomatik]

Originally Posted by rmbrady

Of course they could learn things and it could trickle down, but wouldn't it be better to just put those things straight into the EV Forester? Is there anything that trickled down from the STi in the last 15 years. Motor, gearbox, differentials, brakes, suspension, all mothballed. None of which ever found their way to another car in the US (maybe you could say brakes on previous WRX PP, but that's currently dead as well).

I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong as a long time Subaru fan and past owner, but it feels like a mistep to me.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

Subaru learned a lot from their development of the BRZ that almost immediately trickled down to the Outback, Legacy, WRX, Impreza and Forester. I'm almost positive that MY2013/MY2014 press releases for all of their vehicles noted improved stiffness and rigidity, always giving a percentage number. It was interesting to witness. They did so well with their SGP that the 2024 Impreza is only "10%" stiffer, which I think is one of the smallest improvements since the BRZ's release, which isn't a bad thing.

We don't know what will trickle down from STe. Even Toyota learned a lot from the LFA, which was a very expensive endeavor that eventually paid off. Maybe not financially, but it improved their brand image quite a bit once they trickled down design cues (F Sport and such).

I was hoping for a hybrid performance STI as I don't know how Subaru can pull off full EV performance in an affordable package. Since the STI has never been about range, an EV STI might be a perfect experiment for Subaru. 100 miles of adrenaline!

Sent from my SM-F926U using Tapatalk

[ARod1993]

Originally Posted by rmbrady

Moves like this are confusing to me. As a brand Subaru is moving more and more away from enthusiast stuff and being more focused on jacked up family haulers. That's a bummer to me, but as a business case makes perfect sense.

Why waste any time or money on this bastardization of a sub-brand? Every penny they spend on some dumb pseudo-peformance STe, is a penny that could be spent on making their core cars better.

Let's just assume they create a car that is as quick as a Model 3 Performance, I doubt they are going to be much cheaper, so why buy the Subaru? AWD is nothing special in electric cars, Subaru interiors aren't any better especially since they copied the same big dumb screen that Tesla started. Lord knows Subaru is not known for designing good looking cars. I just don't know what the driving force is behind a "performance" labeled EV from this company.

Now if STe is a hybrid like the Corvette ERay is, where the battery exists only performance, and the car comes with a manual, I'll take it all back.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

The thing is that a mild hybrid STI would be absolutely amazing; just run a 96-144V electrical system and a 50-100kW starter/alternator for instant torque at low RPMs, and keep running the FA24, the bulletproof six-speed manual and a small battery pack for torque/regen. It's not that hard to do that; Honda did it on their Civic hybrids back in 2005 and it worked remarkably well even with the five-speed stick and the NiMH batteries they had back then.

For reference, a 10kWhr pack with 28 cells in series (103.6V nominal) would cost about $1500-2000 or less to build and weigh about 80 pounds (the cells cost around $1k for the quantity needed for 1 battery pack) while being able to put out about 93kW continuous power (900 amps continuous); an Emrax 208 permanent magnet motor weighs about 30 pounds, is a little over 8" diameter and 4-5" thick, and can provide 150Nm of peak torque and 90Nm of continuous torque from 0rpm while costing about $4k-$5k for quantity 1, and the motor controller to drive the Emrax would probably be $2-3k for quantity 1.

When you consider the volume discounts Subaru could get on those parts if they were buying a few thousand cars' worth a year I could see them getting down to $6-7k BOM cost on the whole system, giving us an STe built that way staying under 4000lbs and $50k, becoming a 400-450hp car in stock form that gets 30-35 miles per gallon (and meaningfully longer brake pad intervals) with an fairly understressed engine, and still being fun as **** to drive. Like ****, if that were available now in VB form it would blow the Golf R and GR Corolla out of the water, and be a viable option for people who want truly fun cars well into the future.

Furthermore, a system like that would probably be fairly easy to carry over into most of their other models, and could be used to give the naturally aspirated FB-powertrain cars enough grunt to hold their own in traffic while boosting fuel efficiency into the high thirties/low forties. Like the new Prius makes 200hp, has AWD, and gets 57mpg; it should be entirely possible for Subaru to turn their core lineup into a range of light, fun, sporty mild hybrids that make 200ish combined hp, still have proper symmetrical AWD, and get 35-40mpg EPA. The STe would be the perfect halo car for that transition, and it would make a lot more sense than building a 4500-5000lb all-EV "performance" car that goes really fast in a straight line, gets like 1-200 miles of range as a daily, doesn't have a stick, and can't survive more than a few hot laps at a time.

[19std]

Somebody please with some naisoc forum skills please post a picture of that heavy girl here.

[JNews86]

Once again the fascist govt interferes with production. Nobody wants this bull****.

[19std]

Originally Posted by JNews86

Once again the fascist govt interferes with production. Nobody wants this bull****.

But, but, the sea turtles!

[JustyWRC]

Originally Posted by JNews86

Once again the fascist govt interferes with production. Nobody wants this bull****.

Shoot. I'll take electric acceleration.

[carsebuco]

Originally Posted by JNews86

Once again the fascist govt interferes with production. Nobody wants this bull****.

Let's play Spot the Boomer

[WRX4US]

Originally Posted by carsebuco

Let's play Spot the Boomer

Let’s play Spot the Ageist

[19std]

Originally Posted by WRX4US

Let’s play Spot the Ageist

Wow you really are a boomer ahaha (i jest i jest).

The correct insult is snowflake, zoomer, or "what are your pronouns".

[rallly 4]

Originally Posted by carsebuco

Let's play Spot the Boomer

Let’s spot the guy who isn’t buying one either way

DING DING DING


You actually think anyone wants to drive this crap? Myself and another auto industry friend genuinely believe the gov is doing this to kill the American brands. Dodge goes EV what do they have? NOTHING. Nobody wants the 4xe wranglers and they only sell because they get heavily discounted. This EV stuff needs to stop

[Balantz]

Originally Posted by JNews86

Once again the fascist govt interferes with production. Nobody wants this bull****.

Um. I do. There's a reason there's a waiting list for the Chevy Bolt right now.

Also, "fascism." I don't think that word means what you think it means.

[Kostamojen]

Man the right wing nutters sure get butthurt when the word "Electric" gets thrown about

[Balantz]

Originally Posted by Kostamojen

Man the right wing nutters sure get butthurt when the word "Electric" gets thrown about

This.

[JustyWRC]

Originally Posted by rmbrady

Of course they could learn things and it could trickle down, but wouldn't it be better to just put those things straight into the EV Forester? Is there anything that trickled down from the STi in the last 15 years. Motor, gearbox, differentials, brakes, suspension, all mothballed. None of which ever found their way to another car in the US (maybe you could say brakes on previous WRX PP, but that's currently dead as well).

I'll be thrilled to be proven wrong as a long time Subaru fan and past owner, but it feels like a mistep to me.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

Perhaps I should have added "racing" to endeavors when I said that. THAT is where their learnt knowledge I was referring to trickles down to their lineup. Not "from the STI" to another model.



Now, HOW they learn and use that knowledge I'd love to know. Seems Subaru takes a while longer than others. Subaru had a DI engine in the 90s matted to a (non-lineartronic) CVT concept engine. They have had, at least, 3 Hybrid conecpts and a couple/few EV cars that never went to production(one had limited run not for consumers); yet, they still went with a Toyota design. Even after they brought their own design first(and actually still use that one). Lots of stuff I'd love to see/learn about them.

[Snow Drift]

Originally Posted by JustyWRC

Perhaps I should have added "racing" to endeavors when I said that. THAT is where their learnt knowledge I was referring to trickles down to their lineup. Not "from the STI" to another model.



Now, HOW they learn and use that knowledge I'd love to know. Seems Subaru takes a while longer than others. Subaru had a DI engine in the 90s matted to a (non-lineartronic) CVT concept engine. They have had, at least, 3 Hybrid conecpts and a couple/few EV cars that never went to production(one had limited run not for consumers); yet, they still went with a Toyota design. Even after they brought their own design first(and actually still use that one). Lots of stuff I'd love to see/learn about them.

One-offs, concepts (that don't drive) and commercial R1e are all easy to make once, or a few times. Volume production, and long-term mechanical reliability are difficult. Subaru needed Toyotas e-TNGA system, since they don't have anything.

Subaru (IIRC) has never even mentioned a contract where they are guaranteed battery minerals/supplies in the future. They have Power Point presentations, not actual physical EV products.

[mcarb002]

EVs=fascism lol

Ya’ll-qaeda strikes again

[Balantz]

Originally Posted by mcarb002

EVs=fascism lol

Ya’ll-qaeda strikes again

And that.

[dwf137]

This is an odd departure from the STI E-RA that has already been shown.

I can't help but wonder if maybe this "STe" think is more geared towards higher performing hybrid cars, rather than a performance based electric. The styling of the STe logo is pretty boring, definitely doesn't scream "performance" to me.



Sadly, I haven't seen anything about the E-RA concept actually hitting a track. All talk, no action.