GM Shows China Hybrids

General Motors Corp. announces in Shanghai it will put into service a hybrid-electric city bus that promises to cut emissions and drastically reduce fuel consumption, a welcome message as China grapples with the prospects of explosive transportation growth.

Elizabeth Lowery, GM vice president-environment and energy, says GM and its Chinese joint-venture partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. initially will build a single city bus with hybrid-electric components developed and supplied by GM's Allison Transmission Div.

Lowery says the hybrid system — which uses dual electric motors (powered by electricity from a battery system) to augment power from the diesel engine — has the potential to improve fuel economy as much as 60% and cut emissions up to 90%.

GM has not said when the hybrid bus will be in service. It cannot be too soon for China, which is aware of the looming problems associated with its rapidly expanding economy and the almost exponential growth in its new-vehicle market.

Passenger-vehicle sales in China last year totaled more than 4.5 million units, up 36% from 2002 — a year that marked a 40% growth over the prior year, says Phil Murtaugh, chairman and CEO of GM China Group.

As a result of that growth, oil-scarce China expects to import 75% of its annual petroleum requirement by 2020 — a prospect that alarms the Chinese government.

China recently surpassed Japan to assume the dubious honor of being the world's second-largest oil importer, and GM China officials predict that by 2010, there will be 56 million passenger vehicles on the road — accounting for 43% of the country's total oil consumption.