Hino eyes new hybrid truck in 2010

Japan’s Hino Motors Ltd. will likely develop a gasoline-electric truck to be launched in 2010, with small-size trucks expected to be launched first. Hino will manufacture the new hybrid using some of the same parts used by Toyota Motor Corp., its corporate parent. The truck will feature a high-capacity battery and a highly efficient motor and inverter, which were developed in-house. A sales target has not been set, but President Yoshio Shirai hopes that a third of the 30,000 trucks the firm sells annually will eventually be hybrids. (January 11, 2009)