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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 13, 2008 - 21 Chery Hybrid hehicles co-developed with Ricardo debut at Beijing Olympics As part of the transportation arrangements for the Beijing Olympics, 50 hybrid vehicles are being provided by Chinese automaker, Chery Automobile Company Ltd. Known as the "Olympics Green Messengers," these vehicles are some of China's first hybrid vehicles and will go into full production in the months following the games. Chery set out to develop two new vehicles based on its existing A5 sedan. The first is a stop-start hybrid based on a 12-volt belt starter-generator (BSG) linked to a 1.6-litre gasoline engine with a five-speed manual transmission. The second is a more comprehensive mild hybrid based on the same vehicle but equipped with a 1.3-litre gasoline engine and a 12 kW crankshaft-mounted 151-volt integrated starter-generator (ISG). These technologies provide significant fuel savings through the use of advanced powertrain control and energy management strategies. In addition to developing these two new hybrid products, an important objective of the Chery program was technology transfer through integration of the joint program with its own engineering processes. A dedicated on-site engineering office was established at Ricardo's Cambridge Technical Centre in the UK. Chery engineers worked alongside colleagues from Ricardo as well as with selected component and sub-system suppliers to undertake key aspects of the project. Peak power and torque of the ISG-equipped vehicle are comparable to a 1.6-lire engine. Final production calibration and testing of the vehicle systems are still taking place, but the fuel consumption improvement over the NEDC cycle is expected to approach 15 per cent compared to the 1.6-litre benchmark vehicle. In addition, the system enables engine restart within 200 milliseconds, thus allowing stop-start functionality to be included in the hybrid control strategy.