Despite the rapid advancements in its battery electric technology in recent years, Chinese automotive giant Geely hasn’t entirely abandoned its combustion-based technology, as the group recently introduced its latest series hybrid system known as the Geely i-HEV.
Some promising figures for this HEV system include an engine thermal efficiency of up to 48.4% and a low fuel consumption rate of 2.22 litres per 100 km, with four models set to receive it, including both the Chinese twins of the Proton S70 and Proton X70—the Geely Emgrand and Boyue.
Multiple Dedicated Hybrid Engines with 48.4% Efficiency
The heart of the new i-HEV system is a series of dedicated hybrid petrol engines, including a 1.5-litre nat-asp unit, a 1.5-litre turbocharged unit, and a 2.0-litre turbo unit, with all of them coming from the BHE family—the same found in many newer Proton models.
Regardless of capacities or induction, all these engines can reach a high thermal efficiency rate of up to 48.4%, which Geely said is among the highest in the segment.
Apart from the main combustion unit, the new i-HEV system also comes with an 11-in-1 electric drive unit that dishes out 313 PS to enable a quick 0-30 km/h time of 1.8 seconds.
But performance isn’t Geely’s focus for this new system, where the automaker instead puts more emphasis on efficiency, with its new AI-based energy management system helping the powertrain to achieve a Guinness record-breaking fuel economy rate of 2.22 litres per 100 km, or 45 km per litre.
Said record was achieved with the Emgrand i-HEV in a highway test, but the bigger and heavier models such as the Monjaro i-HEV and Preface i-HEV, with both cars achieving 4.75 litres per 100 km and 3.98 litres per 100 km, respectively.
To Be Deployed Across Key Volume Models.
As mentioned earlier, the new Geely i-HEV system will be deployed to key volume models such as the aforementioned Geely Emgrand, Monjaro, Preface, and Boyue, with the rollout scheduled to take place sometime later this year.
Given that some of the mentioned models serve as a base for Proton cars such as the S70 and X70, there is a chance that P1 might adopt this new i-HEV setup in the future, and the fact that the BHE engine family is already being deployed in some Proton models made it further possible. So, keen to see Proton i-HEV models coming in the near future?
