New Subaru WRX and Levorg 2022 detailed: Full performance range still years away for Australia

Fans of Subaru’s ageing performance range have been treated to a steady flow of information about the brand’s next-generation WRX and Levorg, but don’t expect either car to be hitting Australian streets anytime soon.

That’s the latest information from the brand’s managing director, Colin Christie, who says timing is far from locked in for the new-generation cars, despite the brand finally confirming its new-generation flagship Outback will be joining its range in 2021.

“Timing is something we’re still working on. We’re looking at the refreshed range over the next couple of years,” he said of the Levorg/WRX twins.

When pushed on whether a 2021 launch was ruled out, Mr Christie said: “It’s probably not as imminent as 2021… We’re still finalising what the timeline of that could look like.” This echoes comments previously made to CarsGuide, which suggested the performance heroes could be as far out as 2022 or 2023.

Mr Christie could confirm both cars would merge onto the Subaru Global Platform (SGP) underpinnings alongside their Impreza, XV, and Forester stablemates, but couldn’t confirm any drivetrain details.

All that is known for sure is the Levorg at least will make use of a new 1.8-litre engine, and both cars will be on SGP underpinnings.

Japanese publications have suggested the Levorg and WRX will both come with a choice of either a new “lean burn” 1.8-litre turbocharged boxer engine to replace the older 1.6- and 2.0-litre units employed by the Levorg, or a performance-tuned version of the incoming 2.4-litre turbo boxer engine from the new Outback, which Forbes recently reported could be capable of of a whopping 298kW/489Nm.

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“We haven’t even had the conversation with Japan about what our engine options will be,” Mr Christie said of these reports. “We’ll work that out over the next six to 12 months. Just because a particular drivetrain is available in one market, doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily be able to get it here.”

Subaru performance fans hanging on for news about the next-generation BRZ will be left with little to go off for the time being, with Mr Christie unable to comment on the future of the rear-drive sports coupe.

Subaru Australia had little to say on the topic of the new BRZ, other than it's keen to get the next-gen car.

“BRZ has been a fantastic product for us,” he said, “There are a lot of discussions that need to go on at that Toyota relationship level about what we can and can’t communicate. If there is a new-generation BRZ that becomes available [from Japan], we want to get it.”

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