Toyota previews MX-5 rival in Tokyo

Toyota will use the upcoming Tokyo motor show to underline its commitment to affordable, sporty cars with this, the S-FR concept. It's a small coupe for now, but will likely make production next year as a compact convertible, which will sit beneath the current GT86 coupe in the Japanese car maker's lineup and which will be a rival to the Mazda MX-5 and upcoming Fiat 124 Spider.

While Toyota is being coy about the car's mechanical package for now, it will most probably use a rear-drive platform shared with BMW as part of the long-standing co-production agreement between the two firms. Toyota and BMW already collaborate on engines and the two companies are also co-developing a next-generation Supra coupe and a replacement for the current 6 Series coupe. It's also rumoured that the two are working on a dramatic mid-engined hybrid supercar, with the Toyota version to be powered by a road-going version of its TS040 Le Mans racer's drivetrain.

The S-FR though will be a lot simpler, and distinctly more affordable even than the GT86 coupe. If BMW makes use of the platform, it will most likely become the long-rumoured Z2 roadster, which BMW bosses want to become a modern incarnation of the old four-cylinder Z3 convertible. Power will come from the 120hp turbo three-cylinder 1.5 petrol engine lifted from the Mini Cooper and BMW 3 Series. Toyota says that the “S-FR was conceptualised as the kind of vehicle that attracts its own die-hard fan base, whose members love driving and customising it.”

Tokyo newcomers

It will not be alone on Toyota’s Tokyo stand. The new Prius will get its Japanese market debut. Toyota is still stonewalling on the car’s technical specifications (they are apparently due to be revealed next month) but has promised a 40 per cent overall improvement in efficiency and “a huge boost in fuel economy.”

Toyota will also show off the C-HR concept, which we saw just weeks ago at the Frankfurt motor show and which will eventually become Toyota's mid-size crossover rival to the Nissan Qashqai. There will also be two rather more far-out concepts. The FCV Plus is a small hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, composed mostly of see-through plastic and looking more than a little like a motorised mid-nineties Apple iMac. Toyota says that, in spite of increasing competition from longer-range electric vehicles, compressed hydrogen still has a better energy density than batteries and "can be generated from a wide range of raw materials, and is easy to store, making it a promising future energy source. That's why Toyota envisages a sustainable society in which hydrogen energy is in widespread use?a society embodied by this concept vehicle." The car is also designed to act as a portable electricity generator for remote communities.