The new Sport Mobility Concept from Subaru is a chunky carbon-accented electric sports car that absolutely bangs. It’s been a while since Subaru showed up to any auto show with a compelling concept, and in the midst of a total banger of a Japan Mobility Show event the company managed to match the energy of Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, and Honda by showing off a compact sports coupe. Subaru hasn’t made a coupe of any flavor since the Impreza went sedan-only twenty three years ago.
There are certainly some elements here that won’t make production, but it looks very close to a potential sales-ready EV sports car that I truly hope Subaru has the guts to release to the public. The interior shots of this thing look about as ready for the road as anything on a Subaru dealer lot right now, and that’s encouraging. I doubt the chopped carbon look and aero wheel covers will get to the production phase, and the rear view cameras will probably be dropped in favor of mirrors, but it’s close, and I love what it has the potential to be.
The company has released practically no details about the Sport Mobility Concept, but the company is about as tied to all-wheel drive as Audi at this point, so you can bet this machine will have motors for the front and rear axles. If it does come to fruition, there will likely be hot and hotter versions of the car released with STI branding. It’s billed as ‘enjoyable to drive anywhere at any time, in any conditions’ so this sporty machine could potentially be equipped with air suspension to adjust for the terrain. If you could get an electric sports car and an electric overlander in one vehicle, wouldn’t you?
I haven’t been this excited by a Subaru product for at least fifteen years, so I am really all-in on this one. Subaru has a choice to make. Do they want to continue to have a driving enthusiast following, or do they want to continue to grow a more vanilla and granola with every variety of unidentifiable crossover?
Subaru also unveiled an electric vertical-take-off-and-landing concept, but we all know those are bogus as all heck, and it’s not worth wasting the page space to show it to you. Just look at how cool this Sports Mobility Concept is one more time, and be happy that there’s a future where Subaru could actually release this for public consumption.