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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Toyota to Revive MR2 as Hybrid Competitor to Honda CR-Z? Japanese Magazine Believes So
Posted by wedos at 3:23 PM
Ever since Honda announced the CR-Z hybrid sports coupe, there have been rumors going around about the possibility of a corresponding Toyota model. Just to make it clear, we haven't heard anything official, but Japan's Best Car magazine is reporting/speculating/imagining (take your pick) that Toyota may revive the MR2 as a hybrid model called the MR-S to compete with Honda's CR-Z coupe that will go on sale in 2010.
We'll have to wait until some of our Japanese-fluent readers give us all the details from the article, but from what we gather, the MR-S would probably use a specially developed version of the Toyota Prius' hybrid powertrain.
The magazine's article is accompanied by an artist's impression on how the MR-S could like. Judging by the air-inlets at the back, the proposed MR-S most likely features a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout.
If true, this would make the MR-S a sportier proposal than the front-wheel drive CR-Z.
As we said before, there's nothing official about the existence of such a model, but we can't say that it sounds improbable for Toyota to develop a second sports car after the FT-86, especially if it's a smaller, lightweight hybrid.
Source: Best Car
