The Toyota Supra Is Dead Again—But It'll Be Back Sooner Than Last Time
Toyota has a final edition 2026 GR Supra on the way as it prepares to sunset, yet again, its fun sports coupe. Production of the fifth-generation Supra, which takes place alongside the related BMW Z4 at a Magna plant in Austria, is set to conclude in spring 2026. It is not cost-effective to give the low-volume car the upgrades needed to meet new and pending global regulations.
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The good news: there will be a successor. The bad, but likely not surprising news: there will be a gap between today's Supra and its follow-up model. This is not without precedent, either. The current GR Supra returned after a 20-year hiatus. Its return was made possible by developing it in partnership with BMW, which created the mechanically related BMW Z4 from the same bones and supplies the turbocharged inline-six engine that powers both cars.
'It would be logical that we would have a next-gen Supra. But when and how is still TBD,' senior vice president of Product Planning and Strategy for Toyota Motor North America Cooper Ericksen told us in a recent interview.
Upside—That Gap Won't Be As Long
'Definitely there will be a gap. The question is how big will that gap be,' Ericksen says of the timing of the Supra successor. 'It is our goal to have a gap that is significantly less [than the last one].' While turning around a new Supra in fewer than two decades is a low bar, we suspect Ericksen means it when he says the aim is be quicker this time.
Toyota executives in the U.S. don't have timing to share, largely because it is a decision that will come from Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. TMC will also make the decision on whether to continue to partner with BMW or develop the next Supra itself.
'We would love to build a next generation Supra,' said David Christ, general manager of the Toyota Division for Toyota Motor North America, but Toyota has not officially announced plans to do so. Christ says he would love to be part of the planning on this one, but his influence is limited. 'That decision is way out of my pay grade. I'd love to be in that meeting, but I probably won't be.'
Toyota Has Lot on Its Plate
There are a lot of moving pieces, Ericksen says. For starters, it is as much a question of resources. Toyota just introduced the 2026 RAV4, an all-new vehicle with a new electrical platform and new multimedia and new safety features, technologies that will eventually be rolled out on the roughly 35 Toyota and Lexus models available in the U.S. which requires a tremendous amount of resources.
'We would love to do everything now,' Ericksen says, but we have our hands full just to keep selling our core products in our lineup.'
Ericksen likened it to a house that can be remodeled or scrapped in favor of building an all-new one. 'A product like Supra, it's made it to a point where now we have a Final Edition and the reason is it's just not cost effective with all the new regulations and investment we have to make. It needs to be a new house. When we can get the new house built is the question.'
The desire and expectation are there. 'It's our goal to have a next generation Supra,' Ericksen says, with or without a partner. 'We'll just have to wait and see. My goal is to get a great next-gen product that our enthusiast crowd can fall in love with again.'
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