In December 2011, both BMW and Toyota announced that they will be working together to create next-generation environment-friendly technologies. Well, two years later and the partnership between both carmakers has announced that the first product born out of the collaboration will go on sale "early in 2014."
The vehicle is the 1.6-liter, 111hp D-4D Verso compact MPV, making it the first Toyota vehicle to be equipped with an engine supplied by BMW.
"At Toyota, we believe that tackling environmental challenges facing our industry will require more than one approach," said Toyota Motor Europe president and chief executive Didier Leroy. "Hybrid is at the core of our strategy toward sustainable mobility, but we also see a role for clean diesel in Europe. Working together with an industry leader like the BMW Group allows us to benefit from economies of scale to reduce development costs as well as improve our time-to-market."
According to Toyota, the R&D team of its European technical center in Belgium led the development of the Verso 1.6 D-4D engine to ensure that it is seamlessly matched to the Japanese carmaker's transmission and electronics.
Production of the Verso 1.6 D-4D will begin in January 2014 at Toyota Motor Manufacturing's Adapazari plant in Turkey.
