They call it the Subaru Cross Sport. They suggest it displays the “future direction for urban SUVs”. It rides a little high. It has a split tailgate. It even has a CVT automatic gearbox. 

But apart from that, I’m not seeing too much SUV in the Subaru Cross Sport concept from the Tokyo show. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but it looks to me like a Subaru BRZ shooting brake.

The evidence? The technical details are scant, but it’s only 60mm longer than a BRZ. Weight, though it’s slightly academic in a concept, is only 1250kg. And it’s reputed to 
have a boxer engine driving 
the rear wheels. 

Related articles

Of course it has; just look at the front end. If they haven’t taken a BRZ as the start point, that’s because they took a Toyota GT86 off the line by mistake. 

Subaru has clearly been thinking what I’m sure a few potential buyers have: “I want a BRZ, but I can’t get all my stuff in it.” Think of the Cross Sport, then, as a Ferrari FF for the masses. More passenger room, more dog room, and very 
much cooler, in a BMW M 
Coupé kind of way.

Will they build it? Will they heck. Subaru doesn’t have a brilliant strike rate when it comes to turning concepts into reality, and this is pretty ‘nichy’ even by its standards. 

But, then, the architecture is already there. There’s presumably space on the line if you wanted to find it. It’s only a bit of metalwork around the rear, right? Unless, of course, you wanted to allow making it a touch heavier by fitting, say, a turbocharger and a slightly more plush interior.

If you know somebody from Subaru, work on convincing them, too.