DEC 20

Just a few days ago, the first domestically developed and produced Chinese hybrid vehicle rolled off the assembly line.

"It took us 6 years to develop this hybrid and it marks the beginning of mass production of hybrid vehicles at our company today," said Xu Liuping, the president of Changan Automobile at a celebration ceremony.

The Jiexun is claimed to have 20 percent lower fuel usage than conventional vehicles with tailpipe emissions that can meet advanced EU-IV standards.

According to Xu,

"the Jiexun-HEV was a major component of the 'electrified automobile program' in the state backed high-tech plan, known as the 863-Plan. With a development period of six years, the car had finally become a mass-produced model with internationally-advanced technologies." Expect the Jiexun to get some press at next year's Olympics, with the manufacturer already committed to donated ten Jiexuns to the Olympic committee.

In terms of business levels, Changan Automobiles plans to invest 300 million yuan ($40.7 million) for hybrid technology breakthrough research and to implement volume production. Consider that amount for a moment. Would that even cover exective bonuses at any of the Big Three, let alone the R&D and production enabling costs for a new technology?

Cost: Estimated to be 50 percent that of a Prius. At 150,000 Yuan, this translates to a little over $10,000 for a marketed Jiexun ... which has four doors ... which meets European pollution standards ... Is the Jiexun headed toward Europe (and the United States) post-Olympics press?

Hat tip to Celsias, AutoBlogGreen, and The Auto Channel.

Comments (5)

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and the others drag their feet
written by db, December 20, 2007

So China can make a hybrid for ten grand put Toyota can't figure out how to put three more batteries in the trunk of a prius?

Join the wiki-based discussion group of ecogeeks at:
http://wiserearth.org/group/hypercar

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written by EV, December 20, 2007

I just knew someone was going to bring up a crazy $10K comment. If China didn't fix their currency rate, the cost would be in the $15K-$20K range. Further, these care would probably never meet any US safety requirements. Should also be interesting to find out how long the batteries are good for. I'm willing to be it's a lot less than the Prius.

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EV ...
written by ASiege, December 20, 2007

The PRC maintains the fixed exchange rate. As long as this is the case, the $10k is accurate.

Honestly, have no idea where these might fit for the US safety requirements but, to be honest, that is becoming less and less important as the European and world market are becoming ever more important. It is interesting that they specifically discuss how it meets European emissions standards, which does point to where they might be looking for future market potential.

Finally, as per batteries / et al, there are a lot of questions to ask.

But, don't delude yourself, who was predicting 25 years ago that we'd be buying computer chips, TVs, etc from the PRC?

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Wondering about it
written by Gorazdeo, December 21, 2007

I have read discussions about hybrid-car technology. The accusation is that it uses much energy in the car factories etc. and that at the end of the day, when you ad it all together, the environmental positive effect of hybrid cars are minimum if any. Does anyone have more info (statistics, estimations) on this one?

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History of forging the truth
written by be free, December 22, 2007

I think we need to take Chinese figures as well as efforts with a huge grain of salt. Not much is going on without the direct involvement of the CCP. They are harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners, people are being killed for their beliefs, they're performing genocide, they are shutting down Olympic critics -- and it's really a huge shame that the US is so involved with the CCP (which is not the same as the Chinese people). In this area too, I'm strongly suspecting that it's a front to look good in the eyes of the world. I guess time will tell.

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