Electric vehicles (EVs) are absurdly quick. If you’ve driven an electric car, you know this. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, you will. EVs offer levels of acceleration almost impossible with internal combustion power.
The reason is simple enough. Gas engines have to build their power over time – engineers even chart a “torque curve” for engines, showing how power surges over several seconds in even the most potent combustion-powered engines.
Electric motors always have 100% of their power on tap. They don’t spool up. They get their speed from simply switching max power on and off.
Even EVs built for budgets have sometimes shocking acceleration. Tesla’s cheapest model, the Model 3, is a 4-door available with a 3.1-second zero-to-60-mph time – something Ferrari and Lamborghini struggled to achieve with 2-door cars a generation ago.
Despite this, we’ve seen very few mainstream electric sports cars. The world lacks a small 2-door EV made for stoplight-to-stoplight fun in 2023.
Subaru may, however, have something in the works.
A Teaser of a 2-Door EV
The Tokyo Mobility Show (once the Tokyo Motor Show) is coming at the end of the month, and Japan’s automakers have begun to tease their plans for the big event. Subaru this week revealed hints about what it will bring.
Among the displays will be what the company creatively calls the “Subaru Sport Mobility Concept.” Not the catchiest of names, but this probably tells us the model won’t be a production car. But the company says the vehicle is a fully electric model “embodying the pleasure of going anywhere, anytime, and driving at will in everyday to extraordinary environments.”
The translation is a little awkward. But it leads us to think we’re looking at a design concept for an all-wheel-drive 2-door – perhaps an electric successor to today’s BRZ. The greenhouse seems small enough to suggest just two doors and the lines are low and sleek, like a sport coupe.
Subaru Has Been Rediscovering Its Performance Roots
That’s all we know for now. And we admit to some skepticism this will see production – SUV-heavy Subaru might not be the first brand to bring an affordable sporty 2-door electric to market. But it shows that the brand has a deeper imagination for the future than its current electric lineup – the Solterra, a sibling to the Toyota bZ4X – suggests.
Subaru has been focusing on its sporting reputation lately, bringing out a more high-performance BRZ and a tuner-focused WRX in recent weeks. Perhaps those were hints that the company has something truly sporty in store.
Let’s hope this is the start of automakers using electricity to offer something more than midsize SUVs. We’ll know more on October 26 when the festivities kick off in Tokyo.
