Toyota and BMW Partner for sports car and EV technology

[russv]

I could see a Porscharu, drop a flat 6 in there and have a real fun car.

[Shadowsong6]

Originally Posted by dori.

new Supra with BMW sourced I6 twin turbo plz

Assuming it looks even half as good as the 86, I would give my left testicle for a car like that.

[WingsofWar]

Any co-developed sports car that BMW and Toyota will make, is more likely going to supply Lexus & BMW with a stronger pure sports brand image.

If any Celica or Supra under the Toyota mark does come into fruition, im putting my bets that BMW will be a large contributor to those revivals vs Subaru.

But im not saying that the co-developed car will be a Supra.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by madfast

i think its obvious what's in it for each party. BMW gets fuel cell and hybrid/EV tech and Toyota gets carbon fiber tech (BMW owns part of SGL).

Carbon fiber??? wut?
Fuel cell? Honda comes to mind there, not Toyota.

This is interesting, I thought BMW was partnering with some other people for hybrid stuff.

[White64Goat]

Oh well..............

[eriktherod]

BMW wants Toyota's battery tech, just like Toyota wanted it from Tesla!

[rice_classic]

As long as it doesn't come standard with BMW reliability.

[BoxeRZ]

So ever since Akio Toyoda took over he has been boasting about changing the branding of Toyota from boring, well built sound vehicles to exciting enthusiast style sportyness. Apparently the engineers at Toyota are so bland they are not able to do this themselves. So Toyota throws a bunch of money and an idea at legitimate sports car companies to build them a car. As a previous owner of a Celica GTS I am pretty dissapointed in them. Of course with out them the BRZ would have never happened sooo, I guess its OK?

[Skyhound]

It sounds like they're focusing on making a greener, economical sports car. I'm thinking an Electric motor that can actually dish out a good amount of BHP kind of like the Tesla Roadster. It'll probably be a Lexus and piggy-back the Supra's image to market it on the Toyota end. As for BMW, I'm expecting it to be a new electric Z series roadster. I don't see them risking to have their clientele rub elbows with Toyota fans.

[madfast]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Carbon fiber??? wut?
Fuel cell? Honda comes to mind there, not Toyota.

This is interesting, I thought BMW was partnering with some other people for hybrid stuff.

yes carbon fiber! BMW bought part of SGL so they can manufacture carbon fiber faster and cheaper. toyota would definitely want in on that. they built their own loom for the LF-A, but that isnt something you use to pound out millions of parts with. their strategic partnership with BMW is both for technology and for sporty "street cred" so to speak.

yes fuel cell! toyota had been all in on gas hybrids and so they havent really pushed for fuel cell tech... until recently. they are already testing fuel cell vehicles and fuel cell hybrids. and their recent concepts have been fuel cells in addition to hybrids. so when the largest manufacturer in the world sets its sights on fuel cells, BMW is gonna want in on that. of course the hybrid tech as well.

both will jointly develop better battery tech and toyota will be buying diesels from bmw. this was the earlier agreement.

bmw had partnered with GM on the 2 mode/active hybrid system. but that was a bust. the X6 active hybrid was a joke. conceptually 2 mode is "better" than HSD in some ways, but in reality, nobody has made it work in a mainstream vehicle. perhaps its physically too large and relegated to trucks/suvs? and how many people buy hybrid trucks/suvs? gm has moved on to the volt's voltec system anyways and bmw just uses the ZF developed hybrid system like all the germans do.

[wu_dot_com]

i just hope toyota dont shoot them self in the foot again by branding it a Scion. we all know that Scion dont have high-end or quality cars.

[ZDan]

Hopefully Toyota will teach BMW how to build lighweight, rwd (w/ lsd!) sports cars/coupes/sedans. They seem to have completely forgotten how to do it...

[serialk11r]

Thanks for the news summary, I didn't know about that. I think Toyota probably won't try to adopt BMW's fancier engine tech since it costs too much (piezoelectric injectors, spark plug integrated knock detection, etc.), so I guess the carbon fiber could be something.

HSD would be a bit strange to see in a BMW which usually has some attempt at sporting intentions. If they cooperate on this stuff that would be interesting to see.

off topic: Speaking of hybrids, FHI is producing lithium hybrid supercapacitors, and I have this hunch Subaru might be the first to bring out ultracapacitor based hybrids. Hybrids whose batteries don't wear out after a few years!

[Max Schnell]

I always wanted to see what this type of cooperation can produce. It is now just starting. We will have to wait and see what happends. I don't care what the car is powered by if it is fast and handles well and delivers the performance. Sound is easy, just run a engine sound generator through the stereo system.