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John Mahoney26 Oct 2018
NEWS

Toyota MR2 set to return as pure-electric roadster

Reborn battery-powered Toyota MR2 said to have won high-level backing within the car-maker

Toyota is plotting to follow up its all-new Supra coupe with a reborn version of the Toyota MR2, it has been revealed.

According to

, a replacement for the mid-engine Toyota MR2, that was originally made over three generations between 1984 to 2007, is at the "discussion stage" after the Japanese car-maker's boss Akio Toyoda favoured its return.

Toyoda is reportedly backing reviving the Toyota MR2 because it is one of the brand's 'Three Brothers' -- that consists of the Supra, Celica coupe and MR2.

Since the current 86 Coupe is a modern-day Celica, only the absent MR2 is left to complete Toyota's sports car trinity.

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Toyota has flirted with a next-gen MR2 before, with the 2015 S-FR concept mooted the closest the car-maker has come to a near production-ready replacement.

To reduce the high costs of engineering a low-volume sports car, Toyota
is rumoured to be considering teaming up with another car-maker, mirroring the approach it took when creating the all-new Supra.

This could see the creation of an all-new mid-engine car platform and the fourth-generation MR2 sharing a powertrain with its sister model.

Autocar, meanwhile, says the most cost-effective option open to Toyota could be to do away with a conventional internal combustion engine altogether and create a pure-electric sports car.

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The battery-powered MR2 could also see the small roadster based on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform that was developed for EVs.

The TNGA base would allow optimum packaging for the MR2 and provide for a low-weight low-cost fun-to-drive sports car alternative to a commuter car.

If Toyota decides to green light the reborn roadster, the all-new fourth-gen MR2 is likely to have a long gestation and not to be on sale until 2025, at the earliest.

The advantage of such a delay is the next MR2 will benefit from the car-maker's huge investment in pure-electric technology, including the development of next-generation solid state batteries that will boost range and take a fraction of the charging time required by current lithium-ion cells.

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