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Toyota-BMW sports car to gain all-wheel drive, supercapacitors?

Sales of salt are skyrocketing following the latest rumor of the planned joint-venture sports car from Toyota and BMW. The whisperings indicate that project will spawn both a replacement for the BMW Z4 and a long-awaited Toyota Supra successor based on the FT-1 Concept shown above. Word is that the new cars will feature front-engine, all-wheel-drive layouts with plug-in hybrid technology. This news would appear to run somewhat counter to earlier reports that BMW and Toyota are teaming for a six-figure hybrid supercar.
According to Autocar, the project will benefit from the experience Toyota gained with the TS030, its hybridized Le Mans prototype. The evidence for this is, of all things, a Toyota Yaris - in particular, the Yaris Hybrid R that was shown at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show last September. That car used a 300-horsepower, 1.6-liter gas engine, while a pair of 60-horsepower electric motors provided all-wheel-drive push (an additional motor also sent additional juice to the front axle). The 414-system-horsepower drivetrain used supercapacitors in place of the traditional lithium-ion batteries of traditional hybrids.
For the production sports cars, Autocar claims that the Yaris Hybrid R's setup will serve as the basis for the new powertrain, although it won't be a direct carryover. Instead, a 2.0-liter BMW engine will be paired with Toyota-designed, BMW-built motors.

BMW i3 EV continues to shed camouflage

As BMW gets closer to introducing the production version of its plug-in i3, we keep seeing the hatchback being tested with lessening degrees of design-obscuring camouflage. Last we heard, BMW is expecting to have the i3 ready by the end of this year, and the swirly, blue camo does little to hide its basic design in these latest spy shots.
We get our first clear look at almost everything above the wavy beltline including the silver roof edges and matching mirror caps, and it can't hide the dip in the beltline behind the B-pillar - matching what we've already seen on the i3 Coupe Concept unveiled at the LA Auto Show last year. Another change we notice is the lower portion of camo removed from the front fascia allowing us to see the air opening and the black, vertical inserts leading up to the fog light bezels. Judging by the "Hybrid Test Vehicle" stickers on the side of this prototype, we can only assume that this is the optional range-extended model.

BMW i3 starts near $35,000; NA first deliveries January 2014

While in Germany at the first early pre-production drives of the hotly anticipated BMW i3, BMW people finally hinted at a price ballpark. Numbers being tossed around by pundits have actually been pretty close to what BMW is discussing internally - between $35,000 and just over $40,000. We have been assured now that the base price, should one choose to buy and not lease in the Euro zone, is just over 35,000 euro, with some big taxes included in that price. In the US, the starting price for the fully EV plug-in version should be $34,500 or right thereabouts. In addition to new pricing, we've also gotten our best-yet look at the i3, with the freshly uncovered spy shots you see here.
European deliveries begin in November of this year for the fully electric version of the rear-wheel-drive i3 with 168-horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. The e-motor mounted over the rear axle is supplied with energy by the 22-kWh lithium-ion battery pallet under the passenger compartment. Recharging happens in any of three ways: public or personal garage plug-in charge station (garage version not included in the price), the onboard system's Pro Eco mode that adds resistance to the drivetrain in a type of rolling brake energy recuperation, or through the normal brake energy and off-throttle coasting regeneration more common to EVs. Range on a full charge of this drivetrain is said to be upwards of 100 miles under hyper-miling conditions.
Perhaps the best bit of news is that the alternative, range-extending, two-cylinder 600cc engine supplied by BMW Motorrad for the hybrid version of the i3 - mounted in the rear together with the e-motor - will add only 2,000 euros in Europe and about $2,000 in the US. This is a range-doubling solution that could have brought a much higher price gouge, so thank you, BMW. The hybrid e-drive i3 version arrives a couple months after the full-EV launch version. Remember that, unlike the very similar system for the Chevrolet Volt, the system in the i3 supplies no mechanical torque to the driven axle and is only used as a generator (a system BMW first used last year in the 1 Series-based Active ). The US is seen as the clear number one market for the i3.