By Zhang Ya
      
The year of 2009 is a year that China's auto industry witnessed a prosperous development. No matter the output or sales volume, both of them have gained a historical breakthrough. Against such a background, to drive a sustainable development of the industry is of more reality sense for China's auto industry. No matter speaking of resource conservation, utilization and environmental protection, or taking a view on the future development of China's auto industry, automobiles with energy conservation performance and using clean energy are always an important topic of sustainable development.

In recent years, no matter the auto enterprises with self-owned brands or those with joint venture brands or foreign auto manufacturers, all of them have paid more attention to the research and development of environmental-friendly and energy-saving products. To realize oil conservation, transform and upgrade of traditional autos and develop new energy autos have become the new development trend of auto industry. At the Fifth Annual Conference on China Intelligent Transportation & the Sixth Forum on Innovation and Development of International Energy Conservation and New Energy Autos held recently, PSA Peugeot Citroen Group released its first development strategy on new energy autos in China: by 2020, the CO2 emission volume of Peugeot Citroen's products will reduce 50 percent. And such a target will make its CO2 emission volume in China meet the same standard that it does in Europe.

Viewing from the status-quo, to upgrade gasoline engines is the most direct and realistic approach for traditional autos to realize energy conservation, which, therefore, has become the orientation that many auto manufacturers make great efforts to. In order to realize the target of emission reduction, PSA Peugeot Citroen Group put forward that by 2020, at least six types of novel gasoline engines will be introduced into China's market, and the new generation of gasoline engines will save more fuel than the current engines, and the CO2 emission volume will be reduced by 20 percent.

Despite the upgrade of traditional gasoline engines, to optimize auto structure and auto driving system is also an effective method for energy saving and emission reduction. "Our target is to reduce the energy consumption by 5 percent via optimizing structural system and applying novel materials and tires under the premise of maintaining comfort and security." Eric Apode, General Manager of Technology Center, PSA Peugeot Citroen Group (China), expressed.

In fact, in order to reduce the energy consumption of vehicles and CO2 emission volume, what the issues that need to be disposed are not only to design auto body streamline in accordance with aerodynamics theory, improve engines and reduce tire resistance, the deadweight of autos is also one factor. Because more heavy an auto is, more energy will be consumed with more CO2 generated. "In recent years, the configuration of autos has been higher and higher, the function of engines has been stronger and stronger, and autos have become heavier and heavier. The primary task right now is to take the deadweight of autos into consideration at the initial stage of design, optimize configuration as much as possible, and ��lose weight' for autos." And in accordance with Peugeot Citroen's schemed target, the weight of each new generation of autos will reduce 10 percent.

In order to achieve the target of energy conservation and emission reduction, to develop new materials has also become the orientation that many automakers explore. "It's absolutely possible that new materials will be applied on the auto manufacture in the future. It's certain that the competition in the future auto market is about high technologies. The fierce competition among different manufacturers has also urged us to develop green materials. To inaugurate favorable scientific and technological achievements is propitious to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas, so as to protect environment better." A related principle of PSA Peugeot Citroen Group expressed. As understood, currently, the recycling materials mainly refer to some organic matter constituted by natural fibers: such as flax, bastose and wood; the plastic extracted from crops, and so on. And all of such materials will become the research object of automakers.

Actually, in order to reduce energy consumption and reinforce environmental protection, besides transforming and upgrading traditional energy autos, the development of new energy autos has also begun to proceed in depth. Many automakers have made great breakthrough in developing autos driven by hybrid power, pure electric power and fuel battery. Especially in China, the market that has always been attached great importance to by all big automakers, under the environment of increasingly fierce competition of traditional autos, it's also inevitable that new energy autos become the focus of competition. Nowadays, many auto enterprises have not been simply satisfied with exhibiting several new energy autos and showing development strength in auto shows, all big automakers have expedited the development of new energy autos, and their new energy auto products and plans aiming at China's market have also been reinforced increasingly. Lots of enterprises have begun to develop and launch the new energy auto products specially aiming at China's market in accordance with the uniqueness of China's market. And such a trend has also demonstrated that the competition of new energy autos in domestic market has begun to heat up gradually.

On this exhibition, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen's C-Quatre, which is equipped with STT micro hybrid power system, made its debut worldwide. When an auto is in sleep mode, the system will make engine enters standby state, so as to effectively reduce oil consumption and decrease the emission of greenhouse gas. Such a micro hybrid power system, developed by Peugeot Citroen's Shanghai Technology Center, is the version aiming at China's market. "The demand in China's market is different with that in Europe, very unique. Only under the premise that clients accept and are willing to buy them, these novel technologies on energy conservation and emission reduction can exert their effect. So both research and development are conducted in Peugeot Citroen's Shanghai Technology Center." As understood, by 2010, the second generation of STT micro hybrid power system will be applied in the autos branded with Peugeot and Citroen in China's market on a large scale. And an electric power auto project, which are jointly developed by the technology center and Tongji University, aiming at China's market are also under the development. It is understood that Peugeot Citroen's Hybride4 plug-in full-hybrid technology is intended to be introduced in China in 2015, and the reduced emission volume will reach 30 percent.