Subaru set to show stylish hybrid

Subaru will reveal its take on the future of hybrid motoring when it whips the dust sheets off the gull-wing Hybrid Tourer Concept at the Tokyo Motor Show next week. Powered by a flat-four 2l direct injection turbo petrol engine, the four-wheel drive HTC has two electric motors: one at the front and one at the back. Subaru …

[Anonymous Coward]

Sigh...

...so many concepts, so many promises.

yup Gull wing doors, the must useless invention ever!

With cars getting fatter and fatter and garages in new builds the size of a shoe cupboard, lets see how many people can actually get out the car...

[Sterling Udell]

I like...

...but with that white interior, it's a good thing Subaru's now making Outback Detergent:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdDRyDAtLYo

[Will Shaw]

What the hell is it with....

...using bloody gull-wing doors to show just how futuristic your concept car is?

It looks bloody ridiculous. No, actually, it looks like "Supervan" from that bloody awful 70's movie called er, Supervan.

And, I'm sure your kids in the back will be dead-chuffed that you have to expose everyone inside to the pissing rain just to jump out for a pint of milk.

FAIL.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gull Wing doors ;-)

You would never get out of the car in a UK Supermarket car park.. or at my office either.

More cars with gull wings:

http://www.oobject.com/category/bad-design-gull-wing-cars/

[Anton Ivanov]

Hideously complicated

Two electrical motors on an AWD? WTF?

Is this trying to win special points for making it more complicated than the Prius or what?

Either one motor and use the AWD or two motors and kill the AWD link using an electric motor on the rear axle in 4WD mode.

Anyway, I happen to service my car at a Subaru dealership (most are authorised to service Daihatsu nowdays). I always wondered why do the guys bringing in Imprezas commonly have 900£ odd bills. Looking at this example of fine design I am not wondering any more.

[Anonymous Coward]

Alfa Romeo?

Anyone else think the backend looks like an Alfa Romeo thingy-wotsit?

[Ian Ferguson]

'Concept'

Why is it that all concept hybrid and concept electric vehicles look like a delightful cross between Jessica Alba and Sheer Awesomeness, and yet actual hybrids and real electric cars that you can actually buy look like the mutated offspring of a Japanese dwarf and a tupperware box?

[lee harvey osmond]

Nice concept...

... but puny electric motors, a petrol engine big enough to break CO2 emissions targets and then stamp on the pieces, and the watts for the electric motors come from the petrol engine. No thanks.

[exit...quit...bye...quitbye.ctrl-C..ctrlX.ctrl-alt-X...aarrrr*slam*]

And just like the ´08 Impreza...

...its not exactly a beauty.

But what the register did not mention:

Said two litre H4 will most probably be a direct injection with 145kW, which means the NA model will deliver the same power as the ´07 WRX...

[Dan Howarth]

Looks like an Alfa

Or to be precise, and Alfa Romeo Brera

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=alfa+brera&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g3

[John Robson]

Bet that door

is heavy to shut - As my wife can't manage the boot very easily, that door'll be difficult from inside - unless of course it's motorised.

Then yuo'll get 30mile range (unless you shut the doors, which takes 10 miles of battery power)

[b 3]

very nice!

like it.

always liked saburus..the original impreza turbo would be in my 10car all time garage ;)

[Andrew Oakley]

How do you get out in a car park?

Given the enormous size of the gull-wing doors, how do you get out in a typical car park where there are other cars parked within 40cm either side of you?

[The Indomitable Gall]

Li-ion batteries under the driver's seat?!?

Surely sticking a highly flammable, potentially explosive cell underneath the driver isn't the best idea in the world?

What's that you say? It's either there, in the fuel-and-air-filled engine or next to a full petrol tank?

Devil, deep-blue sea, rock, hard place, creek, !paddle.

[Citizen Kaned]

nice but.....

how the hell do i get out of my car thats parked in a garage with gull wing doors? or modern parking spaces that just fit my astra in?

they look cool but no use in england.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gull wing doors

Maybe useless, but they were on the Mercedes 300 - so they aren't completely evil.

[Monkey]

The words 'stylish' and 'Subaru'...

... Don't go together. They produce great looking concepts and then the production car comes out looking like it has already been in a multi car pile up. And the company are suffering as a result but just don't seem to realise it. When they were winning rallies people had a perceptible reason to buy their cars despite them being pig ugly. Rally wins have dried up and people don't want to buy an ugly car for no reason. But have Subaru twigged this? Not in the slightest and this will be no different when it eventually hits the road.