China’s First Auto Works (FAW, the country’s oldest indigenous automaker) has entered into a development and sales agreement with Enova Systems to use its hybrid drive systems for FAW full (parallel) hybrid buses.

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

“FAW thinks that environmentally friendly vehicles, including battery-electric, hybrid-electric and fuel cell vehicles have great prospects for the next generation of vehicles. FAW will focus initially on hybrid-electric vehicles for its first production to market. With an accumulation of experience through cooperation with a mature component supplier such as Enova, FAW will also develop fuel cell and battery vehicle in the future, assisting FAW’s competitive position in the automotive and transit markets. FAW believes its will be the premier manufacturer of hybrid-electric vehicles [in China].” –Dr. Li Jun, Chief Engineer of FAW Research and Development Center

FAW is the fourth Chinese bus manufacturer to partner with Enova. FAW seems clearly focused on the importance of hybrid and fuelcell vehicles, and that probably indicates that GM and Toyota are going to be in for brisk competition. It is interesting that GM doesn’t appear to have been able to crack the bus market in China; the company continues to rack up hybrid-diesel bus sales in the US, the latest for Yosemite. (Earlier post.)