New rumors surface the WWW on Toyota’s Supra heir
For Toyota, fitting a hybrid powertrain inside the currently in-development Supra would be a natural move. After all, we're talking about the carmaker that spawned the Prius.
The joint-venture between Toyota and BMW is probably one of the most anticipated auto industry collabos, as the resulting models will replace the retired Z4 but will also spawn a new generation Supra, slotted above the GT86.
Nothing has been confirmed yet regarding the nameplates of the two models – although Toyota did trademark the Supra name. But a report published by AutoExpress claims the 2018 Supra could be a hybrid.
Speaking to Toyota Europe President and CEO Johan van Zyl, the publication found out that a hybrid Supra is an option for the Japanese carmaker.
Or how mister van Zyl puts it,"[…] But on the Toyota side, I think we will find that if we can have a World Endurance Championship racing car with hybrid technology, it can happen on a road car.”
The clue points out to Toyota's LeMans prototype, the TS050 LMP1, which employs a V6 turbo engine assisted by two electric motors, each sitting on one of the racer's axles.
Design-wise, the new Supra is expected to emulate the Toyota FT-1 concept, but with a more rarefied design language, while previous reports claimed that Magna Steyr will assemble the Supra (and the successor of the BMW Z4) in Graz, Austria.