BMW and Toyota
announced last week their plans to work together on the joint development of architecture and components for a future sports car. Few details were given about the joint sports car, which set off much discussions and speculations as to the type of sports car that will be developed. Will it be a small coupe/roadster type vehicle like the FR-S / BRZ (co-developed by Toyota and Subaru), a larger sports car - the likes of which we last saw with the Toyota Supra, or something else altogether?
One thing we can now be sure of is that, unlike the Scion FR-S (Toyota 86) and Subaru BRZ, BMW and Toyota's respective versions of their jointly developed sports car
will not be identical nor share exterior designs, confirms a BMW spokeswoman in Munich to
Autonews.
BMW's vehicle "will be a sustainable sports car with environmentally friendly technology," she said. "We are developing the architecture and components for this future car." The spokeswoman continues: "Anything is possible... The key factor is that the products of both companies retain their own individual character, despite jointly developed technologies."
As for the type of car? According to the report, a BMW insider (not the BMW spokeswoman) speculates that the collaboration could provide the basis for the return of the Toyota Supra, possibly using the BMW 6-series platform, though this is only speculation at this point. A Lexus badged sports car also is a possibility.
Whatever shape or form the BMW-Toyota sports cars eventually take, expect to it feature technologies in which BMW and Toyota are market leaders in -- carbon fiber and hybrid tech, respectively.