Toyota and BMW may be working on battery technology, but we're most eager about their ambitious project to build a sports car. It's still unclear what type of sports car will spawn from the partnership, though a new Autocar reports suggests we could first see a two-seater that will become the next-generation BMW Z4.

The car won't be as large as the Toyota FT-1 concept, which is expected to be the Supra successor, and based on a rendering that accompanied our previous report on the joint sports car, it won't look anything like the FT-1 concept either.

That said, the rumored Z4 replacement will retain its front-engine layout, but will feature all-wheel drive, thanks to electric motors driving the front wheels. Its hybrid powertrain will showcase the latest technology from Toyota including a supercapacitor, which Toyota already employs in its Le Mans LMP1 cars to store kinetic energy and provide short bursts of power boost. BMW will provide a 2.0-liter gas-engine rumored to be mated to a sequential manual gearbox.

Toyota is expected to provide torque-vectoring technology, but BMW will take on much of the body construction, employing most of the lightweight techniques it uses for its i3 and i8 cars. That means carbon fiber will be used for much of the car's body, with high-strength steel and aluminum used for structurally significant areas of the chassis. Autocar reports that the sports car will "be one of a series of future BMW-Toyota projects", which means the rumored joint supercar is also a possibility.

The 2015 BMW Z4 is shown below.