The last we heard about BMW and Toyota’s ongoing collaboration was that a technical feasibility study into the two new models had been completed late last year. Now new details about Toyota’s new sports car set to be spawned from the partnership have emerged.
While speaking with Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show 2015, Toyota Europe’s vice-president and product planning chief Karl Schlicht revealed that the Japanese marque’s new car will sit above the existing Toyota GT86. As a result, it will be a spiritual successor to the iconic Toyota Supra.
“The intention with the new car is for it to sit above the GT86. It doesn’t replace that model; the GT86 goes on with its own mission,” Schlicht said.
It is pinned that both the Toyota and BMW models will make use of hybrid powertrains driving all four wheels. Apparently both will include a petrol engine sourced from BMW and mated alongside electric motors drawing their energy from advanced supercapacitors.
Further discussing the car, BMW’s board member for sales and marketing Ian Robertson said “The one thing we’re clear on now is that a platform for both companies can work. The cars in themselves don’t actually need to be positioned the same. The platform can spawn two positionings.
“The concept works, the platform can deliver and now we have two proud sets of engineers – one group German, one group Japanese – who are each fighting and arguing for the car they want,” Robertson said.
Robertson went on to reveal that part of the next phase in the project will be to determine where the cars will be produced and whether BMW or Toyota will be responsible for production.
