GENEVA: BMW automaker’s development Chief Klaus Froehlich likes to see successor to the Z4 roadster by 2020.
Development costs could be shared with Toyota as part of the companies’ cooperation, which includes a common sports car architecture, collaboration on electrification and pooling of r&d on lightweight technology.
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BMW is seeking a cost-effective way to update the car as global demand for two-seat roadsters and coupes declines.
“If you look at the volume … we have to realize that these segments are shrinking,” Froehlich said during the Geneva auto show.
US sales of the Z4 last year fell 13 percent from 2013 to 2,151 cars. In Europe, sales declined 11 percent to 5,369, according to JATO Dynamics.
Froehlich added that car buyers in China “are not interested in roadsters.”
So the replacement of the second-generation Z4, which debuted in 2009, is not a high priority. Asked about timing, Froehlich said: “I would like to see a Z4 successor in this decade.”
