Toyota’s partnership with BMW will create a Supra

Toyota will once again make a Supra. The news was confirmed by the Japanese car-maker’s European vice-president Karl Schlicht in an interview with British magazine Autocar.

The technical partnership with BMW was formed back in 2012 to help share costs of creating the a next-generation small sports car to replace the Z4 and, commentators thought, the current 86.

However, Schlicht, who is also Toyota’s product planning chief, has now admitted Toyota is hatching a bigger, Supra-sized sportscar.

“The intention with the new car is for it to sit above the GT86. It doesn’t replace that model; the GT86 goes on with its own mission.”

It is hoped the replacement for the much-loved Supra, last sold back in 2002, could take inspiration from the well-received Toyota FT-1 concept that was revealed back in January 2014.

The new Supra is expected to be larger than the Z4 replacement despite sharing the same platform. That’s because the new joint Toyota-BMW platform is scalable.

Under the bonnet both Toyota and BMW sportscars will share engines and plug-in hybrid technology.

Toyota is thought to handle the electronics work and body construction while BMW will develop engines and manufacture the Toyota-designed electric motors.

The German car-maker is also expected to use its carbon-fibre know-how from its i-car program to cut weight.

A senior source at BMW has also said production will take place at just one facility, mirroring the arrangement Mazda has with Fiat with the assembly of the MX-5 and soon-to-be-released 124 Spider.

Like the BMW Z4, which is expected to be renamed the Z5, the new Toyota Supra is expected to arrive before the end of 2020.