BMW and Toyota might retire the Z4 and Supra in a couple of years. The two models will reportedly be discontinued, and given the current crossover frenzy, it is possible that new generations won’t replace them.
We have already heard a rumor that BMW's Z4 will drive off into the sunset at the end of its life cycle, and it seems that its fixed-roof sibling from Toyota, the A90 Supra, might follow in its footsteps.
Nothing is official yet, but a report from AutoNews speaks about Magna Steyr cutting 500 jobs from its Austrian facility due to some models having been dropped or in the process of biting the dust. That is where the Z4 and Supra duo come to life, and after the outlet asked Toyota about its sports car's future, they received a rather alarming answer.
Toyota's VP for North America, Dave Christ, said that they are "evaluating what’s next" after a "successful" partnership with BMW. "I think if we want to build something, we'll figure out how to build it," the exec added. This statement leaves the door open for a potentially next-generation Supra, yet injecting a huge amount of money into its development might not pay off.
Photo: BMW
First, sports cars have lost popularity to fast high-riders, and second, the latest-gen Supra is not exactly a best-seller. According to data published by CarFigures, the Toyota Supra accounted for only 2,652 sales last year in the United States, down from 4,952 in 2022. The year before, 6,830 units found new homes. In 2020 and 2019, the automaker parted ways with 5,887 and 2,884, respectively. In total, Toyota sold just a little over 23,000 Supras stateside between 2019 and 2023.
BMW's Z4, which is the same car as the latest Supra, albeit with a roadster body, did even worse. The open-top model sold 1,550 units in 2023, 1,565 in 2022, and 2,367 in 2021. In 2020 and 2019, the German car manufacturer parted ways with 2,371 and 2,941 examples, respectively. This comes out to a little over 10,500 copies in total between 2019 and 2023, so almost half the numbers recorded by its Japanese cousin.
So, what's next for the BMW Z4 and Toyota GR Supra? It appears that the two companies have yet to decide whether it is worth investing a huge chunk of money into the development of the next-generation sports cars. In the most plausible scenario, this will probably be the end of the line for the Z4 and Supra, as their respective automakers will probably ditch them after 2026. There is a small chance that one of them, or perhaps both, will return to the automotive world, but we wouldn't hold our breath for it. Are you sad to see them go?
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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