Toyota and BMW likely to take different paths with their BMW Toyota shared sports car
Toyota and BMW are collaborating to develop a BMW Toyota shared sports car both companies. For BMW, this would be a simple, paired down roadster while for Toyota, it would be an opportunity to go ‘upmarket’ so to speak meaning a top-of-line model for Toyota.
By collaborating to build a shared sports car, both companies can share development costs and technology to keep costs at a minimum. As it is, it costs tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a new vehicle from scratch.
A shared sports car for BMW
The BMW Z4 hasn’t changed much since 2009. As a result, it is starting to look stale and dated. Using the shared sports car enables BMW to take a back-to-basics approach for its replacement. In spy photos taken in the Arctic, the test mule was sporting a fabric roof rather than a retracting hardtop like what is on the current Z4. According to Road and Track magazine, a high performance variant of the sports coupe is not being planned by BMW’s famed M-division.
A shared sports car for Toyota
Toyota’s product using the shared platform would be a coupe and possibly be sold under the revised Supra nameplate. According to Road and Track magazine, using a shared scalable platform lets the Japanese manufacturer create a larger vehicle than the BMW. Available engines for the shared sports car could be a turbocharged inline-six cylinder engine, while the range-topper would attach a plug-in hybrid to the gasoline power plant.
Production of the shared sports car would be handled by Magna Steyr at their production facility in Graz Austria. Production could begin as early as 2018, meaning final versions of the BMW Toyota shared sports cars from each manufacturer could start making appearances late next year.
Source: Road and Track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luk6uor1ZLI
