The "Blue Cocoon," a blue screen cover over the booth, gives the Subaru exhibit a unique flare as the company explains its vision for driving excitement. Subaru sums up its ideas in the slogan "Think. Feel. Drive." Inside the Cocoon, the company shows off a number of new design concepts and perspectives.
During the press briefing, President and CEO Kyoji Takenaka announced that Subaru had completely revamped its motor show exhibit in honor of its 50th anniversary. The brand message is "Think. Feel. Drive." For the past several years, the Subaru booth had concentrated on market models and study models derived from them, but this year the exhibit is communicating the directions that the Subaru brand will take in the future. Displays have been reoriented towards attractive concept models loaded with new technologies.
Exciting Concept Models
The focus of interest at the Subaru booth is the "B9 SCRAMBLER," a concept car with a proprietary hybrid system. It can be found on the main stage at the front. The airplane- like design is innovative in its own right, and the "SSHEV" hybrid system at the heart of the vehicle offers something different from conventional parallel hybrids. Rather than using the motor and the engine at the same time, as parallel systems do, Subaru has instead gone with a "Series Hybrid" in which the electric motor runs the vehicle in the low and medium speed range while the engine is only used to generate electricity until higher speeds are reached. Motors generally offer good acceleration up to about 80 km/h. After that they begin to flag, and that is when Subaru's horizontally opposed engine takes over and provides the vehicle with power directly. The drive mechanism for the car is Subaru's trademark 4WD.
Another concept car on display is the "R1e," an electric vehicle with an overall length even shorter than Japanese ultracompacts. The finely-detailed finish adds some attraction to this "minimal car" design, and makes it clear that Subaru wants to break away from the traditional small car image.
Other highlights in the Subaru booth include the technology corner, where the newly developed horizontally opposed engine and the WRC (World Rally Championships) exhibit can be seen. The company has also brought driving simulators to allow visitors to experience sports driving in a virtual environment. The new emphasis on entertainment adds to the overall freshness and excitement of the booth. |
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| The new "LEGACY" greets visitors to the Subaru booth. |
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| The "IMPREZA" scored an overall victory in the 12th WRC Tour de Corse. |
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| The "R1e" remakes the image of the small car. |
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| The innovatively-designed, airplane-like "B9 SCRAMBLER." |
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| A cutaway model and the new horizontally opposed engine in the technology corner. |
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