If the Subaru Levorg doesn’t trigger the neurotransmitters and tickle the temporal lobe in your brain, I’m honestly not too surprise. The Subaru Levorg is mainly a Japanese-only affair with Australia and a handful of European countries getting their hand’s on it only recently, after some 4-5 years on the market. As a wagon, it’s not surprising that Subaru hasn’t brought it to the U.S., but it’s still largely relevant here for one major reason – it has historically shared a lot of DNA with the Subaru WRX. The car that you see here is the second-gen, 2021 Subaru Levorg, which means that we’re getting our first real look at what the next-gen WRX and WRX STI are going to look like here in the United States. Pretty cool, right?

This is – Almost – the Next-Gen Subaru WRX

If you chop off the roof a little, lengthen and slant the rear glass, and make a few other tweaks, this would be the next-gen WRX. Not surprisingly, the new Levorg looks nearly identical to the regular and STI prototypes that Subaru revealed back in October of 2019 and January 2020, respectively. Much like the next-gen WRX, the new Levorg is riding on Subaru’s Global Platform and, while it looks more like a facelift, it’s actually all-new. And, this is most likely what we can expect from the next-gen WRX.

What’s really interesting here, however, is the interior, as this is the first time we’ve gotten a good look at what we can expect.

Oddly, this car also features a digital rearview mirror, however, we’re not sure this is going to make its way to the U.S. market. Overall, the interior will actually change more than the exterior and the new WRX is going to push its way into the modern world a little more.

In terms of powertrain and performance, you have to ignore what the Levorg offers since this model is JDM-spec. For what it’s worth the new Levorg is powered by a 1.8-liter flat-four that Subaru showcased in those previous JDM Levorg prototypes. It’s good for just 174 horsepower (130 kW) and 221 pound-feet of torque (300 Nm). As you know, this won’t fly here in the U.S., especially for a car that wears an STI badge.

One rumor says that the new WRX will, in fact, inherit this new 1.8-liter, turbocharged, flat-four, but it’ll be tuned to deliver the aforementioned 400 ponies for the STI. The second rumor says that it’ll rock out the Ascent’s 2.4-liter engine, which would also have to be worked over drastically. In the Ascent, it offers just 260 horsepower (190 kW) and 277 pound-feet of torque (376 Nm), so we’re looking at an improvement of some 140 horsepower and 84 pound-feet of torque. It’s definitely doable, and it’s also more believable. It’s been said that Subaru is planning to use the Ascent’s 2.4-liter mill in a number of different tunes for various vehicles in its lineup – a move that will surely cut costs and streamline offerings in the long run. As of now, we believe the WRX STI will be offered with a six-speed manual while the base WRX could be offered with a six-speed or a CVT, but a reveal isn’t expected until 2021, which would make them 2022 models here in the US of A.