First Auto Works (China) Introduces Hybrid City Bus

14 December 2005

FAW’s Jiefang hybrid coach.

First Auto Works (FAW) of China has begun producing a hybrid city bus, powered by an Enova pre-transmission 90-kW parallel-hybrid drive system (earlier post). FAW premiered the Jiefang (liberation) hybrid coach at the 4th International Clean Vehicle Technology Exhibition, in Beijing in November.

According to FAW, the Hybrid City Bus realizes a fuel economy increase of 38% and an emissions reduction of 30%. The Hybrid City Bus incorporates 10 FAW patents.

The Enova 90kW system develops 1,907 Nm of torque. The bus uses a NiMH storage system and supercapacitor for energy storage.

These buses—potentially up to 1,000 of them—will shuttle athletes and guests at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

FAW is the largest automobile manufacturer in China, having more than 50 years experience in the design and manufacture of commercial and passenger vehicles. Production volumes have exceeded 900,000 units per year since 2003.

FAW also introduced a hybrid version of its Hongqi (red banner) sedan at the event in Beijing, apparently with licensed Toyota mild hybrid technology (similar to the Toyota Crown in Japan). Toyota is working with FAW to build the Prius in China.