BMW and Toyota Officially Agree to Co-Develop Fuel Cells and Sports Car

BMWBMWGermany, 1918 > present87 models
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and ToyotaToyotaJapan, 1937 > present155 models
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have officially agreed to a four-part deal that will have the two automotive giants co-developing next generation platforms and technology together. 

“It is just over a year since we signed our collaborative MoU [Memorandum of Understanding], and with each day as our relationship strengthens, we feel acutely that we are making steadfast progress. Now, we are entering the phase that promises the fruit. While placing importance on what we learn from the joint development, we will work hard together in reaching our common goal of making ever-better cars," said Toyota President Akio Toyoda.

For performance car fans, the biggest news is that BMW and Toyota are developing a chassis for a future sports car that will be finished by the end of 2013. To be clear, that means that the platform will be done by the end of the year. We will have to wait several more years before the production vehicles based on this chassis hit the road. The two companies also said that they plan to collaborate on future sports car development too. 

They are working to develop new lightweight composites that will be used on this new sports car platform. 

From a technological perspective, BMW and Toyota will develop a complete fuel cell system by the end of 2020 and a next generation lithium-air battery. The fuel cell system will include the fuel cell stack, hydrogen tank, motor and battery. This also means that future BMW and Toyota hydrogen vehicles will be built to use the same infrastructure and standards. 

They are also working on a lithium-air battery that will have a better power density than current batteries. These batteries are still in their infancy, but early reports indicate that they could offer power density nearing a given volume of gasoline.

They had signed memorandums of understanding to develop fuel cells and the sports car platform and lithium-air batteries in June 2012 and December 2011, respectively.