Siemens, Vinamotor in deal to make hybrid bus prototype

Pham Thai Lai (L) of Siemens Vietnam and Do Nga Viet of Vinamotor exchange the contract for manufacturing a bus prototype using the Siemens ELFA hybrid technology with Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Philipp Roesler (background, L) witnessing

The contract was signed by president and CEO of Siemens Vietnam Pham Thai Lai and Vinamotor chairman Do Nga Viet in Hanoi under the witness of Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Philipp Roesler and Vietnam’s Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh.

The signing marked a new development of partnership between Siemens Vietnam and Vinamotor, three months after the two sides inked a cooperation agreement for applying Siemens ELFA hybrid drive technology to city buses in Vietnam, Siemens Vietnam told the Daily.

Siemens Vietnam said the ELFA hybrid technology would help city buses reduce fuel consumption by half and therefore significantly save operating cost, as well as mitigate the environmental impact through lower exhaust emission.

As agreed, Siemens will provide all necessary ELFA components and technical support for Vinamotor while the local corporation will be responsible for the platform and will manufacture remaining parts of the bus for operational preparations.

Siemens Vietnam and Vinamotor expected the prototype to be finished for demonstration by July 2013. Upon the successful production and testing, the prototype will be put into experimental operation on public roads for three months before the final performance evaluation and mass production will be right after that.

Lai of Siemens Vietnam said as the number of city dwellers in Vietnam was increasing, city buses continued to be a major means of public transport. “Its role will remain essential in the future when there are mass transit systems such as metro or mono-rail in place in big cities like Hanoi and HCMC.”

“The successful implementation of the hybrid bus project will make a significant milestone in the development of the automotive industry in Vietnam… The project will… also open up a great opportunity for this industry in export,” Lai said.

Lai noted that through the hybrid project, Siemens reaffirmed its strong and long-term commitments to the sustainable development of Vietnam by supplying technologies from its extensive green portfolio.

According to Siemens Vietnam, ELFA is a diesel-electric hybrid concept that combines mobile power supply modules such as diesel generator sets and high performance energy storage devices. With the ELFA hybrid technology, the braking energy is turned into electrical energy by the regenerative operation of the traction motor and is fed into an energy storage device and this energy is reused during start and acceleration.

The bus using such technology can be driven electrically and with emission-free, particularly in inner city areas and at bus stops depending on storage capacity equipment.