Bolder Subaru Impreza WRX is coming

The current Subaru WRX STi is a little disappointing on the styling front, compared with 2013’s WRX Concept (pictured). But company insiders have told Auto Express that the next Impreza – due in 2016 – and the WRX that follows it will get design cues from the concept.

Providing a glimmer of hope that all of the concept's sleek style was not lost, Subaru's WRX Project General Manager, Masuo Takatsu, told us that the main design theme of the WRX Concept could yet be applied to a production car.

Now chief Subaru designer Mamoru Ishii has indicated that definitive design hints from the lauded concept's sporty, aggressive stance will indeed reach the production Impreza due in 2016, and the WRX that will follow.

“Yes, we have taken the next-generation Impreza’s design in a new direction that we are sure will excite the marketplace,” Ishii told us, adding that some of the WRX Concept's key proportions will transfer to the next WRX.

“We are planning to give the lower section below the hip line a wider, more substantial stance and narrow up the roof section,” he said, suggesting a much bolder lower body and a more tapered greenhouse, as seen on the WRX Concept.

Subaru's next new models will be the 2015 Liberty and Outback, both of which are due on sale here early next year.

But the Japanese brand's strong global sales, higher share price and newly appointed CEO Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, who has decades of experience in sales, marketing and strategy, have given the company a whole new attitude towards its product line-up.

Three weeks ago when he presented the company's Prominence 2020 business plan and it record earnings for the last Japanese financial year, Yoshinaga announced that a new modular chassis architecture dubbed Subaru Global Platform will underpin Subaru's entire model starting from 2016. The next Impreza will emerge as one of first of these all-new offerings late that year.