Toyota Starts Project to Develop New Engines in Electric-Car Age

Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda announced an initiative to develop new combustion engines, calling it a “realistic endeavor” in the broader effort to reach carbon neutrality.

“A gasoline-powered engine in this age may sound counterintuitive, but that’s not necessarily the case,” Toyoda, grandson of the carmaker’s founder, said Friday during a motor show event in Tokyo.

As carmakers around the world seek to eliminate harmful emissions by scaling up production of electric vehicles, the world’s No. 1 automaker has remained steadfast in its commitment to a “multipathway approach” — which argues that gasoline engines and hybrid motors, along with ...