► Subaru’s electric racing concept
► 1072bhp, e-AWD, wild wing
► Aiming to break lap records
Subaru wants to go racing with EVs and this is its first study of such an idea: the STI E-RA concept. It’s a pure-electric be-winged race car concept designed for the FIA’s new E-GT category and has been revealed at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon.
The STI E-RA is also about breaking records; Subaru wants it to record a lap time of 400 seconds (or 6m40s in plain English) around the Nürburgring. It’s even named to that effect – ‘E-RA’ stands for ‘Electric Record Attempt.’
So how will it go about doing that? With a hell of a lot of e-power. Subaru says the E-RA project has a motor for each wheel and deploys electric torque vectoring. Total system power is a wild 1072bhp (800kW), which is fed by a 60kWh battery pack.
That power output is somewhat beyond the FIA’s new E-GT rules, but this is just a prototype. The new E-GT regulations limit power to 430kW (577bhp) with cars weighing between 1490 and 1530kg. The E-GT category is set to start in 2023.
Subaru has been slowly rolling out electrified models across its passenger car model, with its first EV being the new Solterra – a crossover that’s essentially a badge-engineered version of the Toyota bZ4X.
The brand wants to take the STI E-RA concept to the Nurburgring in 2023 in order to try and set that 400-second sap time after thrashing it about on tracks in Japan across 2022.
Read our Subaru reviews