We have to wait and see. The system is weak sauce to say the least but there could be a few advantages. With 48 ft/lbs more torque at very low rpms the 0-30 time and thus the 0-60 time SHOULD be significantly better. (Electric motors have all of their torque available from 1rpm.) But it's going to depend on how efficiently the two motors work together. In theory the hybrid Crosstrek should have 161 hp and 193 ft/lbs with better low and mid-range power.
Though I would have liked to have see the horsepower go up by a percentage of horsepower, greater than the weight went up by a percentage of weight. (Horsepower went up by about 8% and weight by about 9%.)
Hopefully by the time you see a few reviews of the car, you'll stop thinking about this hybrid system like a Prius hybrid and more like a poor person's Q5, Touareg, or Porsche Cayenne Hybrid, where the hybrid system is more like a substitute for a turbo that gives a slight rise in both power and fuel economy. Though we'll have to see some reviews first.
There are a couple of funny things about it though... Like the battery spec, I've seen it listed as 13.5 kilowatts and 13.5 kilowatt hours. And neither make any sense. 13.5 kilowatts isn't a battery spec and 13.5 kilowatt hours is enormous. (A prius hybrid is 1.4 kilowatt hours and a prius plugin is 4.4.) I'm guessing that there was decimal point error and it's 1.35 kilowatt hours but even that seems large.
Anyway, I for one am looking forward to seeing a few reviews on it. I'm looking for something to replace my MINI. And the current version is just to slow for me.
