New BMW Z5 & Toyota Supra – built in Austria and arriving 2018 (+video)

The replacement for the BMW Z4 – presumably the BMW Z5 – will go in to production in 2018 at Magna Steyr in 2018, and be joined by the new Toyota Supra.

It’s more than three years since BMW and Toyota confirmed a joint venture to build a new sports car with common underpinnings which will, eventually, mean a new BMW Z5 (we assume that’ll be the name) and a new Toyota Supra.

Now, according to Kleine Zeitung, production of the new BMW will start in 2018 at Magna Steyr in Austria, and be joined shortly after by the new Toyota Supra, with around 60,000 cars a year planned.

Recent spy shots of the BMW (above, and in the video below)) show thye Z5 will get a folding soft-top (which will cut weight) and doubtless come with both four and six-cylinder engines from BMW’s extensive stable of powertrains.

The confirmation in the Austrian press that the Z5 will be made at Magna Steyr comes after BMW confirmed a new model to be built at Magna Steyr from 2018, but without confirming what it will be.

But with BMW’s current crop of Magan Steyr cars – the MINI Paceman and Countryman – going out of production, it’s hard to see anything else that’s a fit.

The production of the BMW Z5 (if that’s what it’s to be named) will be followed by a new Toyota Supra (again, assuming that’s what Toyota decide to name their new sports car), and it also seems likely that Toyota will use a shortened version of the new Z5/Supra platform for the next generation GT86.

BMW Z5 Spy Video