BMW-Toyota Hybrid Sports Car will use Supercapacitors

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The sports car being co-developed by BMW and Toyota will reportedly use a supercapacitor hybrid system, making it one of the first production vehicles to have such a system.

According to Autocar, the car will have a front-engine, all-wheel drive layout with a supercapacitor hybrid system derived from Toyota’s Le Mans LMP1 racer. In other words, the Japanese automaker is the one leading the engineering work on the hybrid side, while BMW focuses on the construction of the body.

The supercapacitors will store kinetic energy via regenerative braking and can provide the car with a performance boost. The decision to use them stems from the fact that they are smaller, lighter and quicker at discharging energy to the wheels than lithium-ion batteries.

In addition to the supercapacitors, the hybrid powertrain is also expected to consist of a BMW-developed 4-cylinder, 2.0-liter gasoline engine and electric motors. Power will be transmitted via a sequential manual gearbox, while a Toyota-developed electronics system is expected to provide torque-vectoring capabilities.

Other reports have suggested the system could find its way into the next-generation BMW Z4and the Toyota Supra successor. The Z4 is expected to produce up to 400 horsepower, while the Supra replacement may borrow a thing or two from the FT-1 Concept.