Toyota and BMW have officially confirmed they plan on co-developing a new sports car.
Aside from working on this interesting project, both parties have agreed to jointly develop a fuel cell system for cars by 2020. The agreement was made official today, following last year's tie-up announcement. They will also work together in developing lightweight technologies and conduct research into next-gen lithium-based batteries.
Toyota and BMW will develop a feasibility study to create the support for a mid-sized sports car, aiming to finish the study by late 2013. They will also focus on reinforced composites and carbon fiber materials which will be used not only for the sports car but also for their own models.
The co-developed hydrogen fuel cell tech will have an emphasis on hydrogen tanks, fuel cell stacks, motors and batteries. In addition, both of them will study what has to be done to prepare the infrastructure for rolling out hydrogen-fueled cars. Also part of the plan is to research lithium-air batteries.
According to reports out of Germany, BMW and Toyota have finally agreed on a joint sports car platform.
Details are limited but BMW development boss Dr. Herbert Diess told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "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."
That's a little vague but the companies appear to have selected one particular model from the "four, five or six" different proposals that were under consideration.
There's no word on what type of car will be produced but the rumor mill has indicated it could be anything from a BMW Z4 successor to a Lexus LFA successor.
Source: Al Ain Japan
Aside from working on this interesting project, both parties have agreed to jointly develop a fuel cell system for cars by 2020. The agreement was made official today, following last year's tie-up announcement. They will also work together in developing lightweight technologies and conduct research into next-gen lithium-based batteries.
Toyota and BMW will develop a feasibility study to create the support for a mid-sized sports car, aiming to finish the study by late 2013. They will also focus on reinforced composites and carbon fiber materials which will be used not only for the sports car but also for their own models.
The co-developed hydrogen fuel cell tech will have an emphasis on hydrogen tanks, fuel cell stacks, motors and batteries. In addition, both of them will study what has to be done to prepare the infrastructure for rolling out hydrogen-fueled cars. Also part of the plan is to research lithium-air batteries.
According to reports out of Germany, BMW and Toyota have finally agreed on a joint sports car platform.
Details are limited but BMW development boss Dr. Herbert Diess told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "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."
That's a little vague but the companies appear to have selected one particular model from the "four, five or six" different proposals that were under consideration.
There's no word on what type of car will be produced but the rumor mill has indicated it could be anything from a BMW Z4 successor to a Lexus LFA successor.
Source: Al Ain Japan
No comments:
Post a Comment