Subaru has filed to trademark the STe badge – possibly previewing a new range of high-performance electric cars to succeed the beloved, now-defunct WRX STI turbo sports sedan.

Spotted by US website CarBuzz, the STe trademark has been submitted in Germany – and includes a possible logo for the new nameplate, with a red uppercase ‘ST’ beside a lowercase blue ‘e’ (pictured above, on a new WRX).

The logical use for the ‘STe’ badge would be on a new range of electric performance cars from the Subaru Tecnica International (STI) tuning division, based on Subaru’s next-generation electric cars due closer or after the middle of the decade.

Plans for a new Subaru WRX STI based on the latest WRX were scrapped, the company announced last year, in order to focus on future electric cars to meet emissions regulations.

The decision – which was curiously announced on a Friday afternoon in the US – is believed to have been last minute, as reports out of Japan and the US indicated a new WRX STI was in active development with close to 300kW.

Subaru said at the time it was « exploring opportunities for the next generation Subaru WRX STI, including electrification. »

It is unclear what form the new Subaru STe electric performance cars could take, and if they would include a direct successor to the WRX STI sedan – given sales of traditional passenger cars are declining globally.

The current-generation Subaru WRX range is expected to remain in showrooms until 2030, based on the life cycle of the outgoing model – so any electric replacement may be up to seven years away.

An even bigger departure for the STI (or STe) badge would be a battery-powered SUV, based on one of Subaru’s next-generation electric cars, expected from next year or 2025 onwards.

The company’s only current electric vehicle, the Solterra SUV, was developed in a partnership with Toyota that spawned the closely-related Toyota BZ4X.

Toyota executives have reportedly shown interest in a Gazoo Racing performance version of the BZ4X – which could pave the way for a Solterra STe – but no plans have been locked in.

« We are talking with the GR guys, but it’s still not a concrete idea yet, » Toyota BZ4X chief engineer Daisuke Ido reportedly told UK electric-car website Move Electric last year.