BMW-Toyota joint sports car project is on like Donkey Kong
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/sports/" rel="tag">Performance</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw/" rel="tag">BMW</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/toyota/" rel="tag">Toyota</a></p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-toyota-bmw-idUSBRE9BT05Q20131230"><i mg alt="Toyota-Praesident zu Gast bei BMW" data-caption="Der Vorstandsvorsitzende des Automobilherstellers BMW, Norbert Reithofer (r.), und der Praesident des japanischen Automobilkonzerns Toyota, Akio Toyoda, geben sich am Freitag (29.06.12) im Doppelkegel der BMW-Welt in Muenchen nach einem Pressegespraech zum Besuch Toyodas bei BMW die Hand. BMW und Toyota werden kuenftig noch enger zusammenarbeiten. In vier Technologie-Bereichen wollen die beiden Autohersteller kooperieren. Sie wollen gemeinsam Brennstoffzellen entwickeln, bei der Elektrifizierung von Antriebssystemen und bei der Leichtbautechnologie zusammenarbeiten. Ausserdem werden sie gemeinsam an der Entwicklung eines Sportwagens arbeiten. (zu dapd-Text) Foto: Joerg Koch/dapd" data-credit="Joerg Koch / AP / DAPD" data-mep="73255" src="http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/GLOB/crop/3521x2367+0+0/resize/628x417!/format/jpg/quality/85/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/adam/18484ba5cb17df93ea49d0704 422fdba/f617687ee1e74df686e641d75 510aa4b.jpeg" /></a><br />
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It's official - there will be a jointly developed sports car from <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/bmw">BMW</a> and <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/toyota/">Toyota</a>. While the two auto giants <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/29/bmw-and-toyota-to-partner-on-sports-car-and-ev-tech/">signed a Memorandum of Understanding</a> that pledged to pursue "joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle" back in June of 2012, in the interim, it has remained unclear how those plans had been progressing. BMW has finally officially confirmed that the German and Japanese manufacturers will be codeveloping a pair of sports cars in addition to pursuing other disciplines including fuel cell systems and lightweight technologies.<br />
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"We have agreed on a joint architecture for a sports car. What is important is that there will be two different vehicles that are authentic to the two brands," BMW Development Chief Herbert Diess told Germany's <em>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-toyota-bmw-idUSBRE9BT05Q20131230">Re uters</a></em> is reporting. This is a very, very big step for both brands, but now the speculation can officially begin as to what the products of this agreement will look like.<br />
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There's ample reason to believe that the <a href="http://autoblog.search.aol.com/search?q=toyota+bmw+sport s+car&s_it=header_form">B MW-Toyota tie up</a> will result in a Supra successor based on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2013/08/09/new-rear-wheel-drive-toyota-sports-cars/">comments made by the chief engineer of the GT86/FR-S program</a>, Tatsuya Tada, back in August. Follow that with a rumor from earlier this month that <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/tag/toyota+supra/">Toyota could debut a Supra concept car</a> at the upcoming <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/detroit-auto-show">Detroit Auto Show</a> later this month, and we could be seeing the fruits of this partnership sooner rather than later.<br />
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While we can make educated guesses about what the Toyota end of this partnership will develop, the fruit from BMW's side of this joint agreement seemingly remains more of an open question. Will it be an entirely new model, or perhaps something like Z4 Coupe replacement? Have your say on the matter in Comments.<p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2013/12/30/bmw-toyota-sports-car-project-confirmed/">BMW-Toyota joint sports car project is on like Donkey Kong</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our <a href="/rss-term-of-use/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2013/12/30/bmw-toyota-sports-car-project-confirmed/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/20797597/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2013/12/30/bmw-toyota-sports-car-project-confirmed/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

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