Petrol-electric or gas-electric?

In the traditional hybrid route, while competition between weak mixing, middle mixing and strong mixing got no result, new voices said gas-electric hybrid is better than traditional gasoline-electric hybrid and dual strategy of them should be domestically implemented.

October 12, in Asia-Pacific Gas Industry Association tour of China, speakers Li Zhulin said, "In foreign countries, vehicles using gas and battery as propulsion are very common, especially in public transport. Li is member of a tenth and Eleventh Five-Year Plan assessment panel, the current position is leader of Changsha green car co-ordination group, Li has once lived in Houston for a long period.

Regarding to this, head of Tsinghua University Automotive Safety and Energy State Key Laboratory Ouyang Minggao hold the same view. In his view, currently 60% of domestic gasoline is imported; on the contrary, natural gas is a more stable source of energy than petrol and diesel. Dual strategy of gasoline-electric hybrid and gas-electric hybrid should be domestically implemented, or multiple strategy of gasoline, gas, electricity.

Asia-Pacific gas industry association Lee Giok Seng said: For example, from 1986 to 2008, gasoline price has rose from 30 U.S. dollars per barrel to 170 U.S. dollars a barrel; while gas just doubled in the same period of time, rising range is far less than gasoline. Judging from the current price of gas, costs of using gas vehicle are significantly less than using gasoline or diesel. According to executive vice president of Chengdu transportation Sheng Kuanchang, gas reserves in Sichuan is 100 trillion cubic meters, which can supply cars in Sichuan for 100 years.

At present, more than 80% of the gas vehicle power system is supplied by Shanghai Diesel Power, while the reporter learned that Shanghai Diesel Power has also been join the development of gas engine. Shanghai Diesel Power has access to gas engine research and development for about a decade, products has successfully entered the Thai market. According to General manager Xiong Weiming, Shanghai Diesel Power opened Thailand market four years ago, now has signed a 5000 contract with Thailand partners. In Thailand, an ordinary gas vehicle converted from gasoline or diesel vehicle, can recover modification cost in 8 months or so.

In fact, rich resource and large price difference has made Southeast Asian market main battlefield of gas car. Lee Giok Seng said at the Forum: Gas vehicle in Asia-Pacific region has experienced 40% high growth for five years.

With the high-growth of gas vehicles, petrol hybrid vehicles have also been put on the agenda. Li Zhulin told reporters that he was proposed Shanghai Diesel Power to develop gas-electric hybrid vehicles early in last year. Shanghai Diesel Power Engineering Research Institute Dr. Liu Kai also confirmed that vehicles are already in the experimental sample, but technically not yet fully mature.

The fuzzy state policy remains a important constraint factor for commercial development of gas-electric hybrid. According to informed sources, fitting a set of gas-electric hybrid system to a public transportation vehicle need to increase a cost of 400,000 yuan, but there are no appropriate subsidy policy yet.

Lee Giok Seng holds the view that there should be a stable and long-term government support policy, and establishing a sufficient number of gas supply station. At present in 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, there is a total of 4.96 million gas vehicles, with 6800filling stations.

Ouyang Minggao believes that, with advances in coalbed gas, methane, bio-gas technology, the future fuel gas supply, mainly natural gas, will be loaded into a unified pipeline. According to the plan, by 2012, domestic gas vehicles will be developed up to 100 million units, consuming 1.6 million cubic meters gas, replacing 6.4 million tons gasoline; and by 2020, the scale should be expanded to 3 million vehicles to replace 16 million tons gasoline and diesel. While the electric car is a global trend, natural gas can be used as the transition to fuel cell.（Translator: Qinghua Tongwen-Xiewen）

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