Siemens, Vinamotor enter hybrid-drive bus partnership
Siemens Vietnam and Vietnam Motors Industry Corporation (Vinamotor) struck a cooperation agreement in Hanoi on Wednesday on applying the Siemens ELFA hybrid drive technology for city buses in Vietnam.
Siemens said in a statement obtained by the Daily that a prototype of the ELFA would be built in 2012. Under the partnership, Siemens will provide all key ELFA components and technical support for Vinamotor while the corporation will prepare the platform and manufacture remaining parts of the bus.
Siemens said the ELFA hybrid drive technology helped city buses save operating cost significantly and minimise the impact of these vehicles on the environment through lower exhaust emission, as it contributed to fuel consumption reduction up to 50 percent.
Siemens Vietnam explained that ELFA was a diesel-electric hybrid concept which combines mobile power supply modules such as diesel generator sets and high performance energy storage devices, allowing the energy that is released during braking to be stored.
Siemens said braking energy of conventional city buses was usually converted into heat and lost but with the ELFA hybrid technology, the braking energy was turned into electrical energy by the regenerative operation of the traction motor and is fed into an energy storage device – in high-performance capacitors or batteries. The stored energy is reused during start and acceleration.
Depending on the storage capacity of the system the bus can also be driven electrically and with emission-free, particularly in inner city areas and at bus stops. Therefore, the operator of such buses can benefit from dramatic fuel cost savings and impact less on the environment through lower exhaust emission.
On top of that, passengers can experience quieter operation as well as smooth start and acceleration when they are on board these buses.
Vinamotor chair Do Nga Viet said in the statement that the quality of buses using Siemens’ technology would enable customers to have a wider selection of a suitable vehicle and help the corporation develop buses which are safe, environment friendly, energy saving and cleaner-fuel-driven.
Erdal Elver, president and CEO of Siemens Vietnam, said Siemens had a portfolio of technologies for major urban centers and was committed to providing support to addressing the challenges that big cities in Vietnam faced, especially in transportation systems.
“Our partnership with Vinamotor in this hybrid bus project is a strong evidence of our commitment and we do believe the success of this project would help bring a greener future to Vietnam where air pollution and traffic jam are eased and more Vietnamese people are willing to take city buses as their preferred daily means of transport,” Elver said.
Siemens established its representative offices in Vietnam in 1993 and has since taken part in different infrastructure projects in this country, especially in such key areas as energy, industry, healthcare and transportation.
Category: Business
