The next-generation Subaru WRX STI will be a lot more green than the current model, since it’s expected to get a hybrid powertrain. Subaru Europe’s sales and marketing manager David Dello Stritto recently confirmed that the next WRX STI will lose the current 2.5L boxer engine and hinted at the fact that it could be replaced by an electrified powertrain.

Subaru WRX STI Final Edition
Subaru WRX STI Final Edition

Dello Stritto told Dutch website AutoRAI, that the 2.5L turbocharged boxer engine “can simply not exist in the future.” If the next WRX STI does in fact get a new plug-in hybrid powertrain, the WRX STI could also lose its current all-wheel drive system and instead use an electric motor to power the rear wheels.

Even if the new WRX STI gets a plug-in hybrid powertrain, don’t expect to see it anytime soon.

“There will really be a new WRX STI in the future, but it takes time.” Dello Stritto said. “We’re not giving up on ‘fun to drive’. The new Impreza delivers this fun in a different, more sensible, CO2 emissions-compliant way.”

Subaru recently gave us a preview of what the next WRX STI could look like with the Viziv Performance concept that debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Source: AutoRAI