Toyota Highlander platform to be shared with Subaru Tribeca, FT-86 to get 305-hp engine

Toyota FT-86

Subaru and Toyota are both working on a rear-wheel-drive sports coupe known as the FT-86 in Toyota’s world and 086A in Subaru’s. Toyota is now also considering sharing the platform for the next-generation Highlander crossover with the Tribeca.

According to a source, the two crossovers have similar dimensions. However, as with every Subaru, the problem lays in how to share a platform that would use a longitudinally mounted boxer engine (as with the Tribeca) with a transverse-mounted engine (as in the Highlander). The new platform would also have to accommodate a hybrid version of the highlander.

With the upcoming Toyota FT-86, Toyota tackles the problem with a Subaru pancake engine, which is the STI’s 305-hp 2.5L turbo 4-cylinder. Meaning earlier reports of the FT-86 being powered by a less-powerful Subaru engine could be wrong.

However, Toyota’s development costs have ballooned and the FT-86 may now cost somewhere in the mid-$20s car rather than sub-$20s.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Motor Trend