Subaru has spent the final stretch of the year quietly stoking one of the car world’s most persistent hopes: that a true WRX STI is finally on its way back. A fresh factory teaser, timed around a major Japanese show, has turned that low simmer into a rolling boil among fans who have been waiting for a real halo car to sit above the current WRX range. The hints are still carefully controlled, but taken together they point to something far more serious than another appearance package.
The company is talking up a big reveal at the Tokyo Auto Salon and has wrapped it in the kind of motorsport-heavy imagery that usually signals a genuine performance flagship. For a community that has spent years parsing every trim level and concept car for signs of a comeback, this latest move feels different in tone and timing, and it is already reshaping expectations for what Subaru performance will look like in the second half of the decade.
The teaser that lit the fuse
The latest spark came from a short video and image set that Subaru released ahead of the upcoming Tokyo Auto Salon, promising that something wearing the WRX badge and STI branding would be fully uncovered there. The clip, which has been framed as Subaru Teases New WRX STI Model That Will Be Revealed Next Month, leans hard on rally stages, exhaust notes and close-ups of familiar performance cues, all of which suggest more than a mild cosmetic refresh. Subaru is not spelling out power figures or hardware yet, but the decision to tie this car to a tuner-focused show rather than a mainstream auto expo signals that the target audience is the hardcore faithful.
That intent is reinforced by the way the brand has framed the announcement as news fans have been waiting to hear, with Subaru itself acknowledging that it has “not wasted any time” keeping enthusiasts guessing as the year winds down. The messaging is less about a limited regional special and more about reconnecting with a global community that associates the letters STI with world rally stages and giant rear wings. By promising a full reveal in a matter of weeks rather than months, the company has also avoided the long, frustrating lead times that have dulled previous performance launches.
Concept breadcrumbs from Japan
The Tokyo Auto Salon teaser did not appear in a vacuum. Earlier in the year, Subaru previewed a pair of STI-branded concepts for the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, signaling that its skunkworks arm was very much alive. Those show cars, introduced under the banner All New Subaru STI Concepts Teased Ahead Of the Japan Mobility Show, were split between an all-electric machine and a more traditional internal combustion entry. That pairing hinted at a dual-track future in which The WRX STI could be revived with either gas or electric power, a possibility that was spelled out explicitly when one version was described as the Performance model with a traditional engine and the other as a battery-powered counterpart.
Those concepts were not just design exercises. Reporting on the Japan Mobility Show noted that both were said to sport dual motors, one sitting at each axle, and that they were intended to showcase how The WRX STI might evolve without abandoning its all-wheel-drive identity. By putting that technology on stage in Japan, Subaru laid the groundwork for a future production car that could borrow both styling and drivetrain ideas from the show stand. The new WRX teaser now looks less like an isolated surprise and more like the next logical step in a carefully staged rollout.
From tS specials to a real flagship
In the absence of a full-fat STI, Subaru has spent the last couple of years filling the gap with incremental upgrades to the standard WRX. The most visible of these is the 2025 WRX tS, a factory-tuned variant that adds chassis and brake improvements while stopping short of a complete powertrain overhaul. Shoppers in Pennsylvania, for example, have been told to Explore the Subaru WRX tS as deliveries begin in the 2024–25 window, positioning it as the sharpest WRX currently available through normal retail channels.
Subaru itself has leaned into that positioning by describing the 2025 WRX tS as a new performance-focused model, highlighting features such as Drive Mode Select with electronically controlled STI-tuned dampers and a debut at Wicked Big Meet, one of the largest Subaru gatherings in North America. That car, along with the Japanese market STI Sport versions referenced in coverage under the line Not Quite and Over the years, has kept the STI badge visible without delivering the full package enthusiasts remember. The new teaser is being read as the moment when those appetizers finally give way to a main course.
Pricing pressure and fan expectations
Any new halo WRX will land in a lineup that has quietly crept upmarket. The 2025 Subaru WRX Premium, for instance, is listed with a starting MSRP of $35,750, and higher trims push well beyond that figure once options and performance packages are added. That pricing structure leaves room for a more expensive flagship, but it also raises the bar for what buyers will accept in terms of performance gains and hardware. A lightly massaged WRX with a big wing is unlikely to satisfy customers who remember the value equation of earlier STIs.
Fan expectations have been shaped not only by spec sheets but also by vocal reactions to recent moves. A widely shared video titled The 2025 Subaru WRX STI is a DISASTER captured the frustration some enthusiasts felt when previous rumors failed to materialize into a car that matched the nameplate’s heritage. That backlash has created pressure for Subaru to deliver something that feels genuinely special, whether through significant power increases, advanced all-wheel-drive systems, or a bold step into electrification. The new teaser, framed as It Sure Looks Like a New Subaru WRX STI Is Coming, is being judged through that lens, with fans parsing every frame for signs that this time the hardware will match the hype.
January’s reveal and the road ahead
The immediate focus is a debut event scheduled for early January, which Subaru has teased as a moment when it will finally pull the cover off the mystery WRX variant. The company has been clear that the car will be shown on January 9, with one report flatly stating that a Subaru WRX STI is coming at that debut event. Social media has amplified the drumbeat, including an official post noting that Subaru just gave WRX STI fans a pair of STI-branded show cars and that only one of them is electric, a reminder that the brand is still weighing multiple paths forward. All of this has turned the January reveal into a referendum on how seriously Subaru intends to treat its performance legacy.
Whatever appears on stage, it will sit within a broader strategy that has seen STI concepts, tS specials and carefully worded teasers used to keep the flame alive without overcommitting. The next WRX flagship will have to bridge that careful corporate calculus with the raw emotion that has always defined the STI badge. If the Tokyo Auto Salon car delivers on the hints embedded in the Dec teaser, the brand may finally have a machine that reconnects its rally-bred past with a more complex, electrified future, and gives long-suffering fans the modern WRX STI they have been waiting to park in their driveways.
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