The Sound Of Silence Will Be The Electric Subaru STI’s Death Knell

I know I can't wait to pay mid 60's for a Subaru! Sooo excited by this news!

As a former WRX and STI owner (for 13 years combined)... I've never heard it called the "rumble." It's well known as the "boxer growl." And yeah... it's a thing!

Nobody who would want an STI would want an EV version of it. And nobody who wants an EV would want an STI. I predict a COLOSSAL failure for this profoundly DUMB idea.

No, no, and no. If anyone at Subaru is reading this, please stay true to your engineering roots and do not introduce fake noise. I've been waiting for a pure sports electric AWD sedan for a long time and fakeness doesn't fit into the definition of "pure". Someday the next generation will laugh at us old timers trying to cling on to relics of internal combustion past.

And diesels will never replace steam because they don't have whistles and steam. Please!

Subaru should have made an electric sti alongside the ICE version years ago. It's a perfect low volume model to get the technology down. Seems a little late now, people moved on and the younger generation doesn't care.

Anyway, performance EVs have their own sounds internally like the whirring of motors. It isn't as cool, but I think fake sounds are a bad idea. I also don't think the sound is really a deciding factor... The WRX sold back in the day because it was a low cost way to get a LOT of acceleration /Performance. The only way Subaru is tapping into that again is to undercut the model 3 price AND offer more performance... Which I don't see coming when they are so far behind.

I hope they dont add sounds. The cool silence is one of the best things about EVs. Loud engines ? Time to grow up, no one wants to hear your ride, no one is impressed. 0-60 in 3 secs, thats super car territory , now you are use to it? Guess the lambo owners wasted their money.

I've got a Mach E GT and I can tell you that blistering acceleration doesn't get boring ... EVER. And the fact that it is so effortless and undramatic is what makes it so appealing.
I would argue that the reason loud exhausts are so prevalent on performance cars is because all cars, not just EVs, have become homogenized. Modern cars are just so good, that none of them really have any soul. Obnoxious noise is just some guys' way of masking that fact.
I have a couple old cars with loud performance exhausts, but honestly after a week or two I don't miss it at all in my Mach E. In fact I kind of like hearing the motors whine when I am accelerating or decelerating. And blowing by some unsuspecting guy in an STI with an effortless silent swoosh is very satisfying in its own way.

Easy what will happen is most people won't buy them.

Glad I bought my two SVX s 94 and 96 right hand drive from Japan with less than 70 thousand miles.

There is absolutely nothing appealing about a EV to anyone that's a gear head. For me I can't even find a practical use for one. I have a Subaru OBW, and a Ram with a Hemi and muffler delete. I regularly travel 360 miles to my cabin, and I tow with both. Forget the EV, useless for me. And yes, I want to hear my turbo spool on the subi, and the V-8 rumble on the Hemi.

Subaru rumble? You mean fart cans? The other drivers on the road aren't going to miss them. Maybe this will stop every WRX / STI driver from thinking they are racing.

The problem with making an electric car "sound" like a performance car... I occasionally race go karts, gas and electric. One of the places has electric karts with speakers with fake engine noises. It sounds incredibly stupid. I can live without the fake rumble it exchange for the acceleration.

Still working on producing a generation of hearing impaired, eh? That's akin to endorsing brighter LED headlights to blind oncoming drivers. I find both extremely annoying. Knock it off, please.

Personally loud cars are annoying. The need to inflict your noise on everyone else demonstrates some innate deficit of personality or anatomy.

The automotive version of "lip sync" maybe you could make it sound like a circular saw with a dull blade.

Meh. I used to drive loud performance cars. But they're really inconsiderate to others. The reality is that MOST people don't want to hear your car. There's a small minority of people who like cars enough to be excited by the sound of your car, but it's disingenuous to assert that it's basically something people want to hear.

Admittedly, I miss the sound and vibration I got going wide open throttle with a big V8, but now loud cars are just annoying when you're having a conservation or watching TV and what you're trying to hear is drowned out by someone just looking for attention.

It will be interesting to see what sort of section of the performance car market actually values performance over sound and other aesthetics that they've grown fond of. Seems silly to me to write off a vehicle just because of the noise or rumble but then again I generally see "character" in vehicles as flaws or inefficiencies that people like for some reason. 😂

The lack of sound will definitely be missed but I feel that we're not in a time of moving to electricity because while electric motors can overcome straight line acceleration, that is the least important performance metric. Until batteries can be made faster charging, & much lighter, synthetic fuels are the way forward! Between many sources of electricity not being as clean as burning gas, & the weight already mentioned, the politicians are leading us down a bad path.

Check out this option that already exists www.borla.com/active-performance-sound-for-electric-vehicles

Stop perpetuating this infantile concept that electric cars need to make noise.

An electric car flying by silently faster than an ICE car is the ultimate in performance and luxury.

I predict the electric STI will fail no matter what kind of sounds it makes. Electric cars are not interesting, there is no reason to love them. Everyone knows electric cars can be fast, but they don't care because they have no soul. They are transportation appliances, not a lot different than a refrigerator. An electric car takes you places, a refrigerator keeps your food cold. Neither excites you.

Just to be clear, the Subie rumble is not because of the boxer engine. It is caused by the unequal length exhaust manifold (headers). Get equal length headers and it won't do that.

I taught blind children and adults Orientation and Mobility (Navigation) skills for many years. With no sound from EVs, crossing roads can be a death wish - (close your eyes & think about it for a minute).
So to enforce manufacturers to have EVs make sounds, would help blind, partially sighted & even people on crutches & in wheelchairs, when crossing roads etc. Would definitely help.

Also (getting back to the question) EVs without sound are soulless. Make some noise!
Cheers
Grant