It seems that our long wait for a Supra successor might be nearing the end as reports starting to emerge again, giving us more details about Toyota’s upcoming sports car.
Based on a platform commonly developed with BMW, the new Supra will share many components with the Z4 successor but the Japanese sports car will be physically bigger than its Bavarian sibling as it will use an extended version of the said platform.
This will allow Toyota to comfortably position the new Supra above the GT86 while the totally separate from BMW design direction will lead to two completely different visually models eventually.
Auto Express reports that both new models will come with a BMW petrol engine driving the rear wheels and Toyota electric motors powering the front axle. It’s likely that Toyota will use hybrid tech tested in its LeMans race cars and if that happens, the new Supra will come with electric motors sending power to both axles and the petrol engine driving only the rear, just like the TS050 Hybrid.
The system will also feature regenerative braking which will store energy in a lithium-ion battery pack while the new Supra will be Toyota’s first model to come with a brand new double-clutch gearbox to better match the sporting credentials of the car.
There is also the possibility of both BMW and Toyota to offer at some point plug-in versions of their new models. The final production car is expected to tip the scales at less than 1.400kg thanks to BMW’s weight-saving methods and Toyota’s in-house designed electric motors. With that said, the BMW is expected to be even lighter, thanks to its smaller size.
The two new sports cars will debut within a few months of each other with the earliest prediction set at 2017.
Note: Toyota FT-1 Concept pictured
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