Supra successor may be all-electric sourced from Tesla; MR2 returning too?

Wed, 14 Nov 2012

Rumors of a revival of the Toyota Supra and MR2 have been swirling for years right up until just this week when high-level Toyota employees all but confirmed their return.

But now The Detroit Bureau has put together news from different sources suggesting that the next Supra might be all electric. The report cites recent comments from Toyota senior executives hinting at plans to work with Tesla on a new joint project. The FT-HS Concept (shown above) seems a logical inspiration for a new Supra.

And on the other side of the equation is Tesla's design chief Franz von Holzhausen who was quoted last year saying his company was looking at its next project, probably a sports car, that would follow next year's intro of the Model X. He went on to suggest the car would compete directly with BMW's 3 Series, which, in coupe form, could be a worthy competitor to a Supra as well.

Such a sporty, up-market car could easily take advantage of the Model S platform while the electric drivetrain would fit with what Toyota's chief engineer Tetsuya Tada says is an effort to balance a green image with products that offer "driving fun."

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company was already working on "a few other variants of the Model S" that would be "pretty exciting."

Toyota's Tada says there's no target date for introduction of either a Supra or MR2, but he would expect development to take up to five years to engineer the pair and for the Supra to take priority over the MR2.

By Chris Tutor