Decarbonising

Anna Ellis

UK ministers and aviation chiefs have revealed an action plan for the next two years in the race to reach Jet Zero by 2050, as the government contin ‐ues with ambitious plans to decarbonise faster than any other G7 coun ‐try, grow the economy, and support hundreds of thousands of well ‐ paid green jobs.

The Jet Zero Council ‐made up of industry, aca‐demic and government leaders ‐ met last week at Farnborough Airport.

Through its two ‐ year plan, the council commit‐ted to continue working to speed up the design, manufacture, and rollout of zero emission aircraft and vital infrastructure at UK airports.

The plan sets out how the council will help to ac‐celerate the production of sustainable aviation fu‐els (SAF), by continuing to invest millions of pounds in first ‐ of ‐ a ‐ kind SAF plants, supporting crucial scientific research on a larger scale, and helping to drive down production costs.

Farnborough Airport al‐so played host to the Sus‐tainable Skies World Summit April 17 ‐ 18, which gathers experts and leaders from the worlds of aviation, gov ‐ ernment, energy, and en ‐gineering.

Toyota Corolla Touring Sports - perfect choice?

ROAD TEST

byMarkSlack

FOR many people, espe ‐cially of a certain age, mention estate cars and Volvo comes to mind, es ‐tates that were favoured by antique dealers every‐where. Look for a large estate now and to be honest you’ll struggle. We’ve moved to ‘lifestyle’ estates which are colloquially known as Tourers, smaller load ca ‐pacity but arguably more stylish and better han ‐dling than the estate barges of old.

One of the sleekest and most affordable estates, sorry tourers, is Toyota’s Corolla Touring Sports. Carrying their very well ‐proven hybrid technolo ‐gy, still a much more all ‐round and useable proposition than an EV, the Corolla may not be the most exciting means of transport, but as a package it pretty much does everything you could want of a car. Lots of equipment, affordable running costs and very well bolted together. It feels like a car that will still be running and look ‐ing good in 20 years‐time.

Prices start from €35,363/£31,560 with four trim levels and two engine options ‐ 1.8 or 2.0 ‐ litre petrol hybrid. Standard fare on the en ‐try level model provides everything from front and rear parking sen sors and auto lights to smart phone connectivity and dual zone air conditioning.

My test model was the Design trim, second up in the range, which adds key ‐less entry and start, pow‐er tailgate, privacy glass, power fold door mirrors and auto dimming rear view mirrors to its stan ‐dard equipment.

One of the first things to say about the car is its apparent low stance, it looks very low yet isn’t compared to other cars of a similar type. So Toy ‐ota’s stylists obviously know a thing or two about sleek design!

Inside it looks and feels well assembled and the quality puts some rivals of similar price in the shade. You still get the bolt ‐ on ‐ iPad look of so many cars but that apart there’s a pleas‐ing normality with a stan‐dard automatic gear shift lever, buttons (hurrah!) and decent functionality to the touch screen.

As with anything Toy ‐ota, the Corolla is a smooth and refined drive, push the throttle too en ‐thusiastically though and as is usual with a CVT transmission it high engine revs meaning it’s rather vocal. Progres ‐sive rather than sudden acceleration is the order of the day. cality than a hatchback, but still handles as capa ‐bly, looks good and is su ‐perbly well built, then the Toyota Corolla Hybrid Touring might just be the perfect choice.