Chang’an Automobile has unveiled the first Chinese hybrid car, the Jie Xun or CV11. Like all Chinese car makers, the announcement must be considered with precaution as it is quite often a great deal of effort leading to nothing much. Indeed, Chang’an hasn’t given any technical details yet.
Derived from the Landwind Fashion seen at the 2006 Paris Motor Show and sold in France at a cheap price, the CV11 is expected to be complaint with Euro 4 regulations and consumes 20% less than the normal version. Chang’an CEO Xu Liuping also said that the company will provide 10 hybrid Jie Xun to the Chinese Olympic games next year.
The hybrid Jie Xun is par of an ambitious plan imagined by Xu Liuping who wants the company to release 36 new models and 12 new engines within the next three years.
If the hybrid Jie Xun proves to be a real hybrid which can run in real conditions like the Toyota Prius does, China might become a hybrid vehicles leader in the future. At least this is what Chinese government wnats, but Chinese consumers are not ready to pay a higher price to buy an environmentally-friendly car. The Prius is a failure there and Honda plans to sell 400 hybrid Civc in 2008 while analysts think Honda’s figure to be too optimistic.
The Chang’an announcement appears to be more a will to get the good grace from the Chinese government which wants the country to be a clean country for the next Olympic games next year than a serious attempt to build a hybrid car.
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