Toyota Motor will expand the development of its gasoline-hybrid technology over the next five years

Japanese firm aimed at making cars “greener” as global automakers face tighter regulations in China, the United States (US) and other regions that will require more environment-friendly cars in the coming years.

Toyota is also stepping up the development of longer-range battery-electric cars, in a shift from an earlier strategy of promoting hydrogen fuel-cell technology as the future of zero-emission vehicles.

“We need to take an aggressive approach to deal with changing regulations,” Toshiyuki Mizushima, president of Toyota's powertrain division, told reporters at a briefing.

Toyota said it would expand personnel on its hybrid technology development team by 30 per cent through 2021, by which time it aims to introduce 19 new lower-emission powertrain components made on its recently introduced common manufacturing platform.

By 2021, at least 60 per cent of Toyota vehicles sold in Japan, the US, Europe and China will feature new components which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 15 per cent or more compared with the average amount of emissions of vehicles sold in 2015, the automaker said.

Toyota's hybrid push comes as regulators require automakers to produce more electric cars, while hybrid technology, introduced in the Toyota Prius nearly 20 years ago, is increasingly considered as conventional technology. But Mizushima said that hybrid technology would be key to developing more zero-emission vehicles.

“The core technology of plug-in hybrids and electric and fuel-cell vehicles is based on hybrid technology. By increasing our hybrid team, we can leverage new developments for use in electric powertrains,” he said.

Toyota is speeding up the development of lower-emission cars, last month appointing President Akio Toyoda to lead a new electric car division to accelerate the development of battery-powered cars.

The automaker, which sells around 10 million vehicles a year, has pledged to reduce global average CO2 emissions of its new vehicles by around 90 per cent by 2050.

Towards this end, Mizushima said that he expected the take-up of hybrid vehicles to increase, accounting for around 20 per cent of Toyota's global annual vehicle sales by 2025, from around 10 per cent now.

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Afghanistan and India are planning air cargo over Pakistan

Afghanistan and India are planning air cargo over 

Pakistan: 

Afghanistan and India are likely to announce an air cargo service on Saturday to help increase trade that both say is obstructed because of their nervous political relations with Pakistan that lies between them.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were meeting hold in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, a short distance from the Pakistan border, for the Heart of Asia conference aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.

Officials say the focus of the air cargo service is to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its fruit and carpet industries, while it battles a deadly Taliban insurgency.

Afghanistan depends on the Pakistani port of Karachi for its foreign trade. It is allowed to send a limited amount of goods overland through Pakistan into India, but imports from India are not allowed along this route.

Afghan Director General for macro fiscal policies Khalid Payenda said the potential for trade with India, the largest market in the region, was far greater than allowed by land and so the two countries had decided to use the air route.

"That would be air cargo between Afghanistan and India. We have a lot of potential for trade on both sides.

On our side, it´s mostly fruit and dried fruit and potentially through India to other places for products like carpets and others.

"He said that a joint venture involving an Afghan and an Indian cargo firm would be set up and that the two governments were working to set up infrastructure at Kabul and Delhi airports.

An Indian government source attending the meeting in Amritsar said air cargo route details were still being worked out and could include Kandahar as a point of origin for shipping fruit directly to India.

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