BMW and Toyota to Develop midsize Sports Car Together

German Luxury car maker, BMW will work with the Japanese auto major Toyota Motor to manufacture a midsize sports car, which will help the giants to limit development costs. Partnership between BMW and Toyota that began in the year 2011 will now work together on next generation batteries 'lithium-air' for green vehicles, fuel-cell systems and light weight material, the company informs. However, there will not be any capital alliance between the two.

The giants aim to complete a fuel-cell vehicle system by 2020, while the mid-size sports car concept will come by the end of this year. The company has also disclosed their plans of developing lightweight technologies like composites, which will help make cars greener. The lithium-air battery will be more powerful than the existing lithium-ion batteries currently used in electric vehicles. The company says that the technology on which the company is working on will allow a major part of the battery's energy-making process to derive from the oxygen in air.
Joint research will be started to develop a lithium-air battery, which will be more powerful than the current lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, they said. The technology, which other automakers are also working on, will allow a major part of the battery's energy-making process to come from the oxygen in air.

BMW AG board member Herbert Diess told reporters that the cooperation will help both companies enhance their competitiveness in new technologies. Toyota's Vice Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada too said that working with BMW will help the company in much faster development. He further said that both the companies share a corporate culture and now they have been successful building trust over the last year. They signed an agreement to work together on technologies in June 2012.

"In light of the technological changes ahead, the entire automotive industry faces tremendous challenges, which we also regard as an opportunity," BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said in today's statement. "This collaboration is an important building block in keeping both companies on a successful course in the future."