Rumored Toyota Supra/BMW Z5 Collaboration Will Be Built In Austria

BOLD RIDE

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Posted by Andrew T. Maness 

 

                               

                                            

BMW and Toyota have been working together on a new sports car platform for six years now, and though most of the collaborative effort remains a mystery, we now know where the hardware will come from.

 

 German newspaper Kleine Zeitung has learned that both cars will be built by independent vehicle manufacturer Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Magna builds two vehicles for BMW Group already: the MINI Clubman and Paceman, as well as the official vehicle of reality TV show stars, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

 

BMW confirmed plans to have a new vehicle going into production at the plant sometime in 2018, but they’ve remained tight lipped when it comes to saying what that vehicle is. Given that the new Countryman is due out this year, and the Paceman is going the way of the dodo, all signs point to this mystery car being the new sports car.

Industry speculation says that it’ll be called the Z5, and slot in above the Z4, not replace it as some had previously thought. Much like the collaboration between Toyota and Subaru that resulted in the GT-86 and BRZ, production numbers of the new sports cars from Graz will remain low, totaling around 60,000 units for both.

Not nearly as much is known about the Toyota side of the deal.

That the new car will be called the Supra is not a forgone conclusion as many in the automotive media would have you think, and unlike the heavily camouflaged BMW, a Toyota test mule has yet to be spotted.

 It’s believed that the new Toyota will feature some form of the hybrid technology found in Toyota’s World Endurance Championship vehicles, because that’s the direction sports cars are headed, but one thing is an absolute certainty, it won’t be a new Solara.