First Product of Toyota-Mazda Partnership, Second Generation Toyota 86

MANILA : This May witnessed the collaboration of two prominent Automobile giants, Toyota and Mazda. Both the car makers aim towards “evaluating how best to utilize each company's respective strengths.” Fields like Environment issue solutions and advanced safety technologies are the major thrust areas which these companies are aiming to improve through this newly formed partnership. The very first move under this collaboration is taken by Toyota, as it will be sharing Mazda MX-5 design language, energy recovery system and its 1.5L turbo power plant for its next dream project, the gen-next Toyota 86.

Toyota is working hard these days to come up with a car that stands strong on all three criteria: performance, fuel economy and cost. In-house engineers are burning mid-night lamps to develop a power mill that, though will mirror Mazda's SkyActive 1.5L four-cylinder engine, but will be efficient enough to offer greater horsepower. With its SKYACTIV Technologies and KODO, Mazda has presented itself as a future planner and now Toyota is taking these new-generation techs to a whole new level.

The 1.5L SkyActive engine under MX-5 hood is presently churning out 130 PS of power, which Toyota seeks to increase up to 190 PS. Further, increasing engine efficiency is the F1-inspired energy recovery system. The F1 style KRES (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) will be implanted in next 86, making it a champion in performance and fuel efficiency. Apart from the engine, Toyota will also benefit from Mazda's suspension and chassis-tuning prowess, making the new 86 a star performer. Prices will form the major attraction area as Toyota is planning to stick a price tag that will be at par with current market trend.

Amongst all the celebrations, someone was left out in blue, that someone was Subaru, whose 2.0L boxer engine powers the current 86. But, from now on no more Subaru, its Mazda that will now be seen working in all future Toyota projects. This shift resulted from the poor fuel economy delivered by the boxer engine, which forced Toyota to make the shift.

The new Toyota 86 prototype is speculated to be debut in 2017, while the production models will start to appear in the showroom by 2020 for around 2.5 million yen.