Report: Toyota and BMW to collaborate on new mid-sized sports car, hydrogen fuel cell tech, and more

MotorTrend reports that BMW and Toyota have confirmed a new collaborative effort on a mid-sized sports car as part of some future long-term projects. Both of the two major automakers will jointly develop this said sports car from the ground-up. It will be used to develop and research a fuel cell system, lightweight technology, and lithium-air batteries.

The fuel cell system will be designed in-house meaning all-inclusive componentry such as the fuel cell stack, hydrogen tank, motor, and battery. Ideally, both BMW and Toyota seek to have this project completed by 2020 with a potential prototype available by 2015. Along with these efforts, Toyota and BMW both seek to make hydrogen refueling infrastructure more available.

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Both BMW and Toyota have strong historical backgrounds in researching and developing hydrogen fuel-cell technology. However, due to the cost of the technology back in the day (some of you remember major examples such as BMW’s hydrogen fuel cell powered 7-Series), production just wasn’t feasible. Though several decades later, technology has come far enough to further explore these engineering marvels.

This said “mid-sized sports car” has been speculated by some to even make way for a new Toyota Supra. Though there are no official words surrounding this, except for a concept platform debuting by the end of this year.

– By: Chris Chin

Source: MotorTrend