Can’t wait to get your hands on the new BMW Z5? Well, we have some interesting news for you: it seems the Munich-based automaker’s new sportscar won’t be wearing the Z5 badge after all.
Ever since BMW and Toyota began co-developing a new sportscar, rumour has been rife that the German version will be dubbed the Z5 (with the Japanese model seemingly set to revive the Supra moniker).
But now a BMW executive in the United States has poured cold water on that theory.
“There’s no such thing [as the BMW Z5],” BMW Group Region Americas head Ludwig Willisch told AutoGuide.com.
“There will be a sports car, yes, but it’s not going to be a Z5. That’s something that someone else has made up,” Willisch confirmed.
So, what will the sportscar be called?
“It will be called Z … probably 4,” Willisch told the publication. “I would call it a Z4 [and] that’s no indication of the number of cylinders.”
The last Z4 (E89 generation), of course, went out of production towards the middle of 2016.
Willisch went on to hint that the sportscar could do without a manual gearbox, saying “if the customers don’t want it, we don’t have to offer it”.
Production of the BMW/Toyota twins is expected to start in 2018.
