South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company has unveiled the nation’s first compressed natural gas (CNG) hybrid bus, the ‘Blue-City’. Fully developed in Korea, the bus delivers fuel efficiency with lower emissions by using a CNG engine and an electric motor. The hybrid bus is equipped with a G-CNG Engine that offers 177kW (240ps) and a 6-speed automated manual transmission, while its 60kW (82ps) electric motor and 3.8kWh lithium-polymer battery enable safe driving and efficient charging.
`Blue-City’ meets and even exceeds the performance and efficiency of existing CNG buses: despite cutting down the total number of fuel tanks to five from seven (total capacity of 770ℓ), it can still operate 340km on a single charge, which is equivalent to the existing CNG bus. Furthermore, while its climbing performance of 30 percent is similar to a conventional CNG bus, the maximum speed stands at 100km/h, which is ideal for a metro bus. The fuel efficiency of ‘Blue-City’ is about 30-40 percent higher than that of normal CNG buses, enabling metro bus operators to save costs, Hyundai said.
In terms of CO2 emissions, the CNG hybrid bus emits over 24 percent less CO2 (equivalent to about 33 tons per year/vehicle) than a conventional CNG bus and 35 percent less than a diesel bus.
Hyundai will operate 30 test units of `Blue-City’ in selected metropolitan areas from July, with plans to mass produce the vehicles in 2012.
Item compiled using information from a Hyundai Motor Company press release.
