The sports cars that were to be built in a joint collaboration by Toyota and BMW are yet to fructify.
The news about the collaborative efforts has been in the offing as the two automotive giants are known to have been working together for the last three years on the joint project to produce a sports car for each brand.
It has been rumored that Toyota and BMW have been working jointly since 2012 towards three things: a new sports car for each brand, lightweight components for all their vehicles and new fuel cell technologies. Car experts have believed that this collaborative effort is all set to culminate shortly. However, much to their dismay, this does not seem to be correct.
According to Automotive News, Toyota executives spoke to Reuters and confirmed that the work on developing the sports car is yet to start. While the sources confirmed that the joint development work on the sports car, lightweight components and fuel cell technology is going on as per schedule, the decision on whether to build the sports car or not will be taken by Toyota by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, BMW is purportedly keen on expanding the joint project with BMW; however, the Bavarian company is also undecided on taking it to production levels.
As per earlier reports, the collaborative efforts between the two auto giants were expected to yield two non-competing sports, one for each brand. The vehicles were expected to have different scales so as to maximize profits for each company without denting each other’s market space.
Supra was to be Toyota’s car and was estimated to be the bigger of the two vehicles, whereas BMW was planning to apply the joint technologies to build a new and upgraded Z4 roadster. Hence the two companies would have leveraged on their joint strengths to build cars that would never directly compete with each other.
Car enthusiasts seem disappointed with the present no-show news and are hoping that the companies will make correct choices at the earliest so as to benefit consumers at large. However, experts feel that the shrinking sports car market could water down the optimism too.
