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Toyota, Mazda form electric car technology venture

TOKYO — Toyota has established a new venture to develop electric vehicle technology with partner Mazda, seeking to catch up with rivals in an increasingly frenetic race to produce more battery-powered cars. Policymakers in key markets like China are pushing a shift to electric cars over the next two to three decades, while relatively new rival Tesla is gaining momentum and diesel cars are going through the fallout of the Volkswagen diesel scandal, pressuring traditional automakers to crank up plans for fully electric vehicles (EVs). At the same time, declining battery costs are enabling more power to be packed into cars, making an electric car future easier to imagine. Toyota said in a statement the new company will develop technology for a range of electric cars, including mini vehicles, passenger cars, SUVs and light trucks. Toyota will take a 90 percent stake in the joint venture, called EV Common Architecture Spirit Co Ltd, while Mazda and Denso Corp, Toyota's biggest supplier, will each take 5 percent. The plans build on a partnership announced in August when Japan's biggest automaker agreed to take a 5 percent stake in Mazda and two said they would jointly develop affordable electric vehicle technologies. Although Toyota is providing most of the financial firepower and existing EV know-how, Mazda's engineers have gained the admiration of the industry with breakthrough technologies such as its compression ignition engine announced last month. Shares in Mazda surged to end the day 3 percent higher, while those in Denso rose 1.8 percent. Toyota shares were flat. Both automakers are somewhat behind rivals, with neither having a fully electric passenger car on the market yet. After years of focusing on bringing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the market, Toyota last year set up a division to develop electric cars which is led by President Akio Toyoda, and said it plans to introduce EVs in China in the coming years. Toyota has also announced it will bring a game-changing solid-state EV battery to market by 2022. That division would continue as a separate entity from the new joint venture, a Toyota spokeswoman said, while adding that the two teams would co-operate on technology development. Mazda has an R&D budget a fraction of Toyota's, which has made it difficult to develop electric cars on its own. Even so, it has said it plans to launch EVs in 2020.

Production Mazda Vision Coupe concept, GRMN Supra, new BRZ/86 coming

After writing about what's in store for the next-generation Subaru WRX, Japan's Best Car magazine is back with more spy work on what's ahead for the coming Mazda sedan, fighting-spec GRMN Toyota Supra, and next-generation Subaru BRZ/Toyota 86. All three are supposedly headed for previews at this year's Tokyo Motor Show before rolling out in 2021 and 2022. Mazda showed the Vision Coupe concept at the 2017 Tokyo show, then sneaked a mention of a rear- and all-wheel drive "Large Architecture" and two inline-six engines into a 2019 investor's report. Best Car says that concept's production version will house a 3.0-liter Skyactiv-X SPCCI inline-six with "M-Hybrid" 48-volt assistance. Output figures remain a mystery, but the mag says engineers are aiming for 345 horsepower. The real deal isn't slated for dealers until 2022, bringing what Mazda bills as a "BMW, Audi quality car at the price of Volkswagen." A further treat: Best Car says the Hiroshima automaker is laying out a two-door version on the same platform. Not even a month after 2020 Toyota Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada told us, "With a sports car, the promise is to offer more performance with each additional version," this report says the full-fat GRMN Supra will raise the stakes. Expected in the latter stages of 2021, the current 335-hp Supra will get an "output eventually close to 400 ps" (about 394 horsepower) from its BMW-source 3.0-liter straight-six. Along with that will come a lighter, stiffer body, and a sportier suspension tune to manage and make the most of the 60-horse increase. Best Car says the next-generation Toyota 86 / Subaru BRZ will move to a new platform, without specifying whether it would be Toyota's TNGA platform suggested by a report in April — not that there are many other options. Neither the footprint nor the body dimensions are predicted to change, and transmissions will continue to include a six-speed manual and a six-speed automatic. The new platform will hold a new engine, although it won't be the revelation many fans want. The magazine says the Subaru 2.0-liter FA20 will retire, making way for the Subaru 2.4-liter FA24. The FA24 is the same engine in the Subaru Ascent crossover, where it produces 260 hp and 277 lb-ft. There'll be no such fireworks for the sporty twins due in the first half of 2021, output reported to be "improved to 220 ps," or 217 hp — a 12-hp bump over the current figure.

Next-gen Toyota 86, Subaru BRZ could arrive by 2021

If these rumors are true, a small but dedicated core of fans could be in for a treat. According to Japan Times — and citing unspecified "sources" — Toyota and Subaru are developing a next-generation 86 and BRZ, with a possible launch around 2021. The new car(s) would reportedly have more power, improved handling and newer safety features. According to the report, the rear-drive sports coupes could do away with the current 2.0-liter engine in favor of one with a larger 2.4-liter displacement. The Japan Times sources say the next-gen 86 will also have a lower center of gravity, which will translate to an improvement on the car's already impressive cornering stability. Theoretically, the 2.4-liter in question could be the new FA24 mill used in the upcoming Subaru Ascent crossover that's turbocharged to produce 260 horsepower and 277 pound-feet. That output would be a mammoth jump from the current Toyobaru pair, and it seems doubtful that's what possible second-generation cars would get. Nevertheless, it's at least consistent with recent comments from Toyota engineer Tetsuya Tada that indicated a more powerful, turbocharged 86/BRZ would not be possible unless there was a new, next-generation model. In an interview with Australia's CarAdvice, Tada said, "I do like turbos, however if we come up with a turbo version of the 86 and boost up the power that would result in the necessity of changing the basic configuration completely, to come up with a car that I would be satisfied with." "One characteristic of the 86 is that in terms of the front balance it's slightly front loaded so it makes the handling more fast and agile," he continued. "So if we were to come up with a turbo version, we would have to go change the weight balance between the front and the rear. That means we have to come up with a completely new platform, so it's not about just changing or slight modification in the engine parts." Note that "we have to come up with a completely new platform" does not equal "we are coming up with a completely new platform." He could be talking strictly hypothetically, it could be a wink-wink nudge-nudge implication that his team is already hard at work, or things could've just been a bit fudged in translation. In any event, as hopeful as we are about the possibility of a new generation of Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86, we can't help but maintain a healthy dose of skepticism that the partnership will continue as the Japan Times report suggests.