A high-ranking Toyota official has confirmed that the upcoming Supra will be powered by a BMW engine, while also emphasising that the sportscar will “not be cheap”.
Previewed by the GR Supra Racing Concept at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2018, the production version of the Supra has been developed alongside the upcoming Z4.
Speaking to AutoRAI, Gerald Killmann, vice president for research and development at Toyota Motor Europe, confirmed that the Z4 and Supra would share a powertrain.
“The platform is the same. The same applies to the powertrain. The styling is, of course, completely different and also the adjustment of the chassis will be very different. The powertrain is not a hybrid, but a petrol engine,” Killmann told the Dutch publication.
It thus seems likely that both vehicles will employ a version of the German brand’s twin-turbo straight-six.
“It will not be a cheap car. There will be a clear difference between the GT86 and Supra. The GT86 remains the affordable sportscar; the Supra becomes the performance model. Whether the production will be limited, we are not going [into that] now,” he said.
Killmann added that the new Supra was “mainly developed in Japan”, revealing that the European R&D centre was “not much involved”.