Subaru WRX vs Forthing Taikon 5

What's the difference?

Possibly one of the most perfect performance cars you can drive daily for the price. Dynamic and fun to drive, but also easy to live with thanks to the drive modes for extra comfort, the high ground clearance and the practicality that comes with four doors, lots of storage and a big boot.

The tS Spec B is the priciest WRX in the range, but compared to rivals it's also great value. A car I would buy with my own money for sure.

Forthing remains something of an unknown quantity in Australia, but this first look at the Taikon 5 on local roads is promising.

It’s a modest mid-size SUV that’s priced accordingly and if you’re not a car person this will likely be enough to get people into a showroom.

Compared to most of its rivals it’s surprisingly pleasant and nice to drive, which is not something you can say about many first attempts.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer with travel and meals provided.

The WRX tS Spec B stands out from its siblings with 19-inch matte-grey alloy wheels with gold Brembo brakes and if you don’t notice any of that, then surely you won’t miss the gigantic rear wing planted on the boot lid.

The air scoop jutting out of the bonnet like a pizza oven is standard across the WRX range and it looks tough. There’s the rear diffuser which also looks beefy but also a bit plasticky, and the quad exhaust, that’s nice, and so is the note which wafts out of them at idle.

The tS Spec B’s Recaro sports seats are also in other tS grades – they do look and feel good, and offer outstanding comfort and support. 

The rest of the cabin is much the same as other WRX grades with a large portrait-style screen, physical buttons for climate control, and yes, that is a traditional, mechanical handbrake you can see in images.

This is a sporty-looking although slightly outdated cabin compared with more modern rivals.

Outside, the Taikon 5 is inconspicuous to the point of anonymity. If you told me it was a new model from BYD, Chery, GWM or Leapmotor, I’d believe you.

The EV and REEV versions of this car look identical and the only way to tell them apart is the badging on the tailgate. Yes, that means the EV has a fuel filler cap that doesn’t open and serves no purpose.

Beyond the Forthing lettering on the tailgate, nothing identifies the car as a Forthing. Perhaps that will come in time, once more models arrive, but for now it’s a bland look.

Take the front. The angular LED daytime running lights and headlight set-up is cliche and overdone, plus the honeycomb grille is tacky. It's not helped by the prominent charge flap smack-bang in the middle of the front bumper.

Inside, the car takes the same all-too-similar approach of hanging everything off a central touchscreen.

The 14.6-inch touchscreen is large and prominently mounted, but elsewhere the dashboard already looks dated and cheap. It’s not helped by the exaggerated circular air vents that scream Audi or Mercedes-Benz knock-off, or the large silver panels on the steering wheel.

What’s so appealing about the WRX is that despite it being a performance car, it’s based on a regular 'small' sedan and with that comes all the practicality of a four-door, five-seater with a big 411-litre boot.

Space inside is excellent with plenty of room up front, while rear legroom is ample enough for me, at 189cm tall, to sit behind my driving position with plenty of headroom, too.

That all said the Recaro seats up front are on the snug side and I know they’re supposed to be, but I’m just saying they might not suit everybody – and by that I mean everybody.

Those with long legs might also find they have to adjust their driving position when letting out the clutch.

Big door pockets throughout, four cupholders, and hidey-holes for items throughout make for good cabin storage.

There are four USB ports and one 12V outlet, but no wireless phone charging to be found.

Surprisingly standard across the Taikon 5 line-up is ventilation and a massage function for the driver’s seat. This is good value for money, plus the massage feels strong.

The driver’s seat also offers 10 ways of electric adjustment and most people should find a comfortable driving position. You sit high, which SUV buyers prefer for the commanding view.

The steering wheel doesn’t reinvent the wheel (pardon the pun). It’s conventional and straightforward, which is no bad thing. All the buttons are clearly labelled and do exactly what they say.

Behind it, the digital instrument cluster is unremarkable and clearly displays the critical information, including a digital speedometer, odometer and remaining range.

You’re able to cycle through several informative pages. Oddly, the up and down buttons on the steering wheel adjust the cluster’s brightness.

The 14.6-inch central touchscreen multimedia system is large, however it’s tilted too far back and picks up reflections as a result.

The interface is simple and there isn’t much to get lost in, which makes the occasional lag when opening apps and sub-menus harder to excuse.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard and the connection held up over our short driving loops.

The drive modes and vehicle settings live in the touchscreen, but the climate control gets its own bank of physical dials and touch-sensitive buttons. The latter is great to see given so many carmakers are burying it in the touchscreen.

Elsewhere in the cabin there is a fancy-looking and Volvo-esque crystal-style gear selector, a wireless phone charger (Exclusive only), two cupholders, an open storage area under the centre console, a decently sized centre console box, as well as a glovebox.

In the second row there’s enough space to get comfortable. At a leggy 182cm, I had plenty of legroom behind my own driving position and headroom is okay, though the panoramic glass sunroof in the top-spec Exclusive trim eats into it.

The virtually flat floor means getting three adults across the rear bench isn’t out of the question, though there’s little bolstering in the seat back and base, so you’ll slide around in the corners.

Second-row amenities include central console-mounted air vents, a singular USB-A port, as well as a fold-down armrest with cupholders.

There are ISOFIX child seat anchorage points on the two outboard rear seats and top tether points on all three.

The Exclusive comes with a power tailgate. It beeps and opens slowly, but eventually the job gets done.

Boot space is 480L with the rear seats upright, expanding to 1480L with them folded. The boot area is fairly spacious and there’s a flat load floor.

Depending on the variant there’s an underfloor compartment that’s big enough to store some charging cables.

The EV Exclusive comes with a space-saver spare wheel, which is critical if you do long-distance drives in rural and regional areas. Disappointingly it doesn’t feature in the entry-level EV Luxury which makes do with a tyre repair kit, despite having the space to fill.

All versions of the REEV also have a tyre repair kit, but this makes more sense as the space is taken up by the rear-mounted electric motor.

Both the EV and REEV are offered in two trim levels called Luxury and Exclusive. They are priced as follows:

• Forthing Taikon 5 REEV Luxury: $36,990
• Forthing Taikon 5 EV Luxury: $38,990
• Forthing Taikon 5 REEV Exclusive: $40,490
• Forthing Taikon 5 EV Exclusive: $42,490

All prices are drive-away

That pricing undercuts the likes of the BYD Sealion 6, Leapmotor C10, Geely EX5 and Starray EM-i, as well as the Jaecoo J7 PHEV.

The entry-level Luxury grade gets the following as standard:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• Tyre repair kit
• LED headlights
• 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster
• 14.6-inch touchscreen multimedia system
• Four-speaker sound system
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Crystal style gear selector
• Synthetic leather upholstery
• 10-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat
• Four-way electrically adjustable front passenger seat
• Ventilated and massaging driver’s seat

That’s a fair amount of standard equipment for the asking price, but stepping up to the top-spec Exclusive adds:

• Space-saver spare wheel (EV Exclusive only)
• Power tailgate
• Panoramic glass sunroof
• Rear privacy glass
• Power-folding side mirrors
• Six-speaker sound system
• Wireless phone charger
• Synthetic leather-wrapped steering wheel

Although the EV and REEV versions of the Taikon 5 are virtually identical in terms of specifications, there are some small differences.

The EV has a proper start-stop button, the REEV doesn’t and instead turns on and off when you unlock and lock the car. Additionally the EV has an automatic mode for the climate control which the REEV misses out on.

Who doesn’t love the sound of a boxer engine? Well, probably your neighbours if you own a WRX. And while the tS Spec B doesn’t have any more power than any of the other WRXs – with it sharing the same 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder boxer engine as the rest of the line-up – the 202kW and 350Nm feel like the perfect amount of power and torque for this package.

It’s probably been about six months since I last drove a car with a manual gearbox, and that shows how rare they’re becoming when you’re testing a new car nearly every week.

The six-speed manual in the tS Spec B has satisfying clunky shifts and a heavy-feeling clutch pedal, but it all plays along perfectly with this engine, sending the drive to all four wheels.

If you’re looking for a version of the tS Spec B with an automatic transmission you’ll be searching forever because this grade only comes with a manual gearbox. There are WRXs with autos – well, a CVT – the entry grade, the RS and the tS.

While the Forthing Taikon 5 EV and REEV may look virtually identical, what is lurking under the bonnet is rather different.

The EV has a single, front-mounted electric motor that produces 150kW and 340Nm.

The REEV instead has a rear-mounted electric motor, making it rear-wheel drive. It produces 120kW and 240Nm, which is 30kW and 100Nm less than the EV.

It’s paired with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine that’s capable of producing up to 75kW. It acts purely as a generator and never drives the wheels.

The WRX tS Spec B manual really likes its fuel – it’s a hungry beastie and everybody who’s about to get into the WRX life should be aware that, like most petrol performance cars, it’s not super fuel efficient.

Subaru is beautifully honest with its fuel consumption figures, which have the the WRX tS Spec B using 10.4L/100km in combined driving and 14.2L/100km in urban environment, which is so close to what we recorded - ours was 14.1/100km after mainly urban driving. You'll also have to feed it 95 RON.

The fuel tank is a healthy 63 litres in volume and that should give you a range of 606km – in theory. Do not test this theoretical range somewhere remote, okay?

Both versions of the Taikon 5 have a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery.

The EV has a 64.4kWh unit that’s good for up to 427km of WLTP electric range, whereas the REEV has a smaller 31.2kWh unit good for up to 170km of WLTP electric range.

For the EV that’s fairly standard for the segment, but with the REEV the battery pack is much larger than many of its similarly priced rivals.

You can’t forget the REEV also has a petrol engine that’s fed by a 43L fuel tank. This allows for a WLTP total range of up to 937km.

Both versions have a Type 2/CCS port on the front bumper, allowing for AC and DC charging.

The EV has a peak AC charging rate of 11kW and a peak DC charging rate of 80kW. The latter is mediocre, but it allows for a 30 to 80 per cent charge to occur in 30 minutes.

The REEV has a peak AC charging rate of 6.6kW and a peak DC charging rate of 40kW. Despite being slower, a 30 to 80 per cent changer using the latter is still claimed to take only 30 minutes.

This may sound strange, but a few months ago I was squished into the tiny cockpit of a 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 sitting at the traffic lights wishing I was in the 2020 Subaru WRX STI beside me. And having driven so many supercars and muscle cars in the past, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, I still see the WRX as being such a perfect daily driver performance car.

Sure, it doesn't have Porsche 911 dynamics or the straight-line acceleration of many electric cars, but it's the way the way this boxer engine interacts so beautifully the six-speed manual gearbox, combined with sticky all-wheel drive, a wonderful balance and such direct steering that make the WRX ts Spec B feel exactly right.

The tS Spec B is very much at home in the suburbs dotted with roundabouts and obstacles like speed bumps, but they all become part of the fun of driving this car in the same way that when you let it loose and open road it performs happily and so well, too.

The suspension does feel firm, but part of the big news of this tS Spec B is that it now has a drive mode function and this allow you to adjust the suspension, the steering and the throttle response to either sporty or comfort settings. This just makes this car an even more agreeable thing to live with daily.

The EV’s front-mounted electric motor is adequate, rather than quick. It’s enough to keep up with urban traffic.

Because it’s front-wheel drive with full torque available from a standstill, don’t be surprised by a touch of wheelspin if you bury the accelerator.

When taking off harder the electric motor can make prominent whirring sounds, but this kind of feedback is nice as an eerily quiet car can feel disconcerting.

In the REEV, the 1.5-litre petrol engine only ever acts as a generator, so it drives like an EV. Its electric motor sits on the rear axle, which makes it quieter from the driver’s seat and rear-wheel drive. In practice the lower outputs blunt it and it feels slower than the EV.

There’s still enough off the line. You only notice the deficit at higher speeds.

There are a total of four EV/hybrid modes to choose from, including EV-only, EV priority, hybrid and fuel only. They all do exactly what its name suggests.

Due to the limited driving program at the launch, I didn’t get to fully experience the extent of how the REEV powertrain operates under every circumstance. For example, I couldn’t drive it with a low battery charge and have it solely rely on the engine.

When the engine fires up to charge the battery, it stays quiet and in the background. If you're not paying attention you wouldn’t know it’s on.

Both versions of the Taikon 5 offer two levels of regenerative braking. There’s no one-pedal mode, meaning you need to use the brake pedal to come to a stop.

What’s surprising is the way it drives. Its rivals can drive like a dog’s breakfast and while the Taikon 5 isn’t class leading, the dynamics are better than you’d expect.

What I mean by this is the steering has some sense of what’s happening with the tyres when you turn the wheel. There are three settings to choose from and the most natural is Sport mode, which is the firmest.

There's no Australian-specific suspension tune, but it’s still generally compliant and comfort oriented. Unlike many of its rivals though, it’s not overly soft and floaty.

In terms of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) the Taikon 5 is a generally quiet car, even at higher speeds. However, we noticed some plastic trim rattles and creaks, which isn’t ideal given they're brand new.

At this stage the Forthing Taikon 5 hasn’t received an ANCAP safety rating and is therefore unrated for now.

The following safety equipment is standard across the line-up:

• Six airbags
• Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
• Blind-spot monitoring
• Front and rear cross-traffic alert
• Lane-keep assist
• Adaptive cruise control
• Reversing camera
• Rear parking sensors

Stepping up to the Exclusive brings front parking sensors, as well as a high-definition surround-view camera.

On the road, the Taikon 5 is a welcome relief from the bings, bongs and chimes that plague many of its rivals.

That’s partly because it goes without a driver attention monitoring system. This is the culprit of many bings and bongs in rival vehicles.

The only safety gripe is the lane-keep assist can be a touch hands-on and yank at the wheel if you get too close to the painted lines.

The WRX tS Spec B is covered by Subaru’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which while the standard for the mainstream segment, is behind the seven-plus terms we're now seeing from a lot of Chinese and Japanese car brands.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km/12 months and can be expensive compared to other brands, with the five years of capped price servicing coming to $2692.

The Forthing Taikon 5 is covered by a seven-year, 200,000km warranty, while the high-voltage battery is covered for eight years, 200,000km.

There’s 12 months of roadside assistance which can be extended out to five years provided you service within the Forthing dealer network, when required.

Logbook servicing with the REEV is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whereas with the EV it’s every 12 months or 20,000km.

Forthing is offering five years of capped-price servicing. With the EV it’s $1815 and the REEV it’s $2605 which works out to $363 and $521, respectively, per year.

Forthing is still scaling its dealer network in Australia and it currently has 20 sites operational. The company plans to have a total of 35 by the end of 2026.