TOKYO — When Akio Toyoda put an experimental Corolla onto a racetrack last year, he was something of a lone voice in the wilderness touting the concept of hydrogen-burning engines as a powerful force for carbon neutrality in an auto industry gone gaga over pure electric vehicles.
But Toyota Motor Corp. is finding unlikely allies in the supplier world.
U.S. turbocharging giant BorgWarner Inc. and Japanese piston ring specialist Riken Corp. are both chasing clean internal combustion. Both have ramped up development of technologies to burn zero-emission hydrogen, instead of dirty gasoline, in tomorrow's engines.