Subaru brought two big concepts to the Japan Mobility Show. One of them is what we expected, an electric sports car concept called the Sport Mobility Concept. The other is the Air Mobility Concept, which looks more like a flying car than a lot of personal aircraft concepts. And there are reasons a flying Subaru isn’t that far-fetched.
But the most eye-catching of the two is the Sport Mobility Concept. In many ways, it seems more like what you would expect of a Subaru sports car than even the BRZ, what with it’s slightly boxy ends, pronounced fenders and wide stance. The design around the inner sections of the headlights even evoke rally lights. But there’s not much to share other than the design. All Subaru said was that it’s electric and all-wheel-drive, and that’s the long and short of it. It also apparently has a low seating position, which, we would hope so for a sports coupe.
As for the other vehicle, the Air Mobility Concept, it really does look like a modern interpretation of a flying car. It has distinct headlights and taillights with branding in the middle. The cabin even looks very car-like. It’s just that the pancaked outer edges are filled with propellers. Again, Subaru gave hardly any details, but it said that it has aerospace and automotive engineers working on it. And yes, Subaru has aerospace folks. The company actually builds helicopters under contract for Bell. So if any automaker is going to enter the personal aircraft game, Subaru might be the best positioned for it.
Still, neither of these seem slated for production anytime soon, least of all the Air Mobility Concept. At least that’s our estimation. We sure would be interested to see the Sport Mobility Concept evolve into something in the near future, though. Maybe some sort of electric WRX coupe, perhaps?
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