Hyundai Motor has announced that it has finished developing a new partial (mild) hybrid electric bus and that it will begin testing full hybrid buses during the second half of this year.
 
The Korea Herald newspaper said the announcement came less than two weeks after Hyundai Kia Automotive Group’s chairman Chung Mong-koo stressed the need to develop hybrid cars and announced the group’s plans to accelerate related projects.

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The new bus model is fitted with a mild hybrid system and the company will be supplying two such vehicles to a bus company in Suwon and 10 to another bus company in Incheon area to test the vehicles under normal road conditions.


The mild hybrid system uses an electric motor to support the internal combustion engine and help reduce fuel consumption. However, a mild hybrid vehicle does not have a hybrid drivetrain.


In addition, the mild hybrid system uses the energy reclaimed through regenerative braking, a system that converts the energy generated when braking into electricity, to cool down the engine. The energy used to power the cooling system is supplied by the engine in a conventional diesel vehicle and leads to additional fuel consumption.
 
The company said that the mild hybrid system can cut down fuel consumption of conventional diesel or liquefied petroleum gas-driven buses by up to 20%.


Although the fuel efficiency increase of up to 20% offered by the mild hybrid system is much lower than the increase achievable with a full hybrid system, the company said that the system has the advantage of being cheaper.

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“The full hybrid system is able to raise the fuel economy by a higher margin but it is also more expensive to produce,” a Hyundai Motor official told the newspaper.


“The company plans to put the bus into production next year and we will also be putting full hybrid buses into road tests during the second half of the year.”