2022 Subaru WRX Sportswagon: a Levorg for Australia

The Subaru WRX has not had a wagon variant since the last of the second-generation Impreza left the production line in 2007. However, the longroof body style is returning to the nameplate, at least in Australia, where the Sportswagon will arrive sometime in the second quarter of next year.

As you can see, however, the car is quite a bit different from the WRX sedan. The front and rear bumpers are less aggressive in design, there are just two exhaust pipes instead of four and the divisive black wheel arch trims have also been ditched. That’s no surprise, as the Sportswagon is not actually based on the WRX.

In fact, the car you see here is to all intents and purposes the second-generation Levorg, which ditches its global name Down Under for the more illustrious three-letter acronym. The Sportswagon replaces the original Levorg in Australia, with Subaru clearly leveraging the WRX’s heritage.

Like the sedan, the Sportswagon is built on the Subaru Global Platform (SGP) and shares that car’s L-shaped LED headlights, hexagonal grille, bonnet scoop and front doors. This means that the Levorg – I mean, the Sportswagon – has more in common with the WRX than the regular Impreza.

Subaru did not release photos of the wagon’s interior, but like the Levorg it should carry over much of the architecture from the sedan, including the massive 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen, flat-bottomed steering wheel and heavily-bolstered front seats. The Levorg has a quoted boot space of 561 litres and the same is expected for the Australian model as well.

One change from the Levorg is the engine. The Sportswagon ditches that car’s 1.8 litre turbocharged flat-four with a larger FA24F 2.4 litre unit, shared with the WRX. It should deliver the same outputs – in the US, the sedan pushes out 271 hp at 5,600 rpm and 350 Nm of torque from 2,000 to 5,200 rpm.

However, the wagon will not be offered with the optional six-speed manual gearbox, with Subaru instead pairing the mill exclusively with a new CVT called the Subaru Performance Transmission. The latter features an eight-speed virtual ratio mode, Variable Torque Distribution and Sports Shifting Control. As always, the Pleiades brand’s Symmetrical All-Wheel-Drive system is standard-fit.

One benefit of the CVT is that the Levorg will be fitted with the EyeSight suite of safety features such as autonomous emergency braking, which is not available on manual WRXs. It will also come with the WRX’s new adaptive dampers, which can be adjusted via the Drive Mode Select system.