BMW and Toyota’s hybrid sports car to get supercapacitors

BMW and Toyota’s joint sports car will get a supercapacitor hybrid system obtained from Toyota's Le Mans LMP1 racer. While BMW was reportedly working on the platform and powertrain it seems the Japanese car maker is in charge of the all-new plug-in hybrid system.

The supercapacitors will store kinetic energy for a short period of time to give the car a performance boost. The smaller and lighter supercapacitors absorb and release kinetic energy quicker. This could be one reason why both companies agreed on using these instead of lithium-ion batteries.

The hybrid sports car will be powered by a small capacity 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine working in unison with electric motors made by BMW. The power will be transmitted through a manual gearbox with the electronics system developed by Toyota for offering torque-vectoring.

Both the sports car are rumoured to look different inside out. While BMW might replace the Z4 with this new car, Toyota may call it the spiritual successor to the Supra. The cars will be built using lightweight carbon fibre material and aluminum used in the i3 and i8. The cars are rumoured to hit the market by 2017.

BMW sells the Z4 in India and most probably the car will be sold in Indian market. But, considering Toyota is not associated with anything related to sports cars, will the Supra be rebadged as a Lexus in India? As this could also mark the official entry of the Lexus brand which hasn’t been introduced here by the world’s largest car maker yet.

To read more about the joint sports car platform click here

Source: Autocar UK