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The first product of the new alliance between BMW and Toyota will be a two seat sports car which will bring performance boosting super capacitor technology to a series production model for the first time. The sports car was confirmed by BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer and Toyota boss Akio Toyota last year, and will sire a replacement for the BMW Z4 and a successor to the Supra, which Toyota hinted towards through their Detroit Motor Show FT-1 concept.
What will the BMW-Toyota sports car look like?
BMW are leading the body engineering of the new sports car, with a BMW source at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show stating that, “We will adopt lightweight solutions created in the development of the i3 and i8.”
Details of the vehicle are scarse, though insiders involved in early engineering proposals suggest that the new car will use a high-strength steel and aluminium floorpan with carbonfibre elements in non-load-bearing sections for added weight savings. The outer body is expected to make use of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic materials. Despite sharing a common platform, the new BMW and Toyota will have individual styling and interior designs.
How will the BMW-Toyota sports car be powered?
The jointly developed BMW-Toyota two seater will feature a front engined layout, though the model is likely to be a front wheel drive due to it's direct injection petrol engine and electric motors. These power sources will form a part of the high tech super capacitor touting hybrid system that draws on technology and expertise gained from Toyota's Le Mans LMP1 sports car programme. This new hybrid system is Toyota's main role in the sports car project, using super capacitors for short-term kinetic energy storage and a performance boost.
The groups have chosen super capacitors because they absorb and discharge kinetic energy more e rapidly than the latest generation of lithium ion batteries. They are also typically smaller and lighter than existing energy storage sources. BMW first aired the technology on the X3 EfficientDynamics concept car in 2005 and has been pushing hard to bring it to production.
At its heart will be a BMW-engineered petrol engine of no more than 2.0 litres in capacity. It will be combined with electric motors produced by BMW at its engine plant in Munich to specifications supplied by Toyota. Drive will be channelled through a sequential manual gearbox. A Toyota-developed electronics system is expected to provide torque-vectoring capability.
The sports car will be one of a series of future BMW-Toyota projects to use common engineering solutions and shared components, according to officials with knowledge of the cooperation.