Chinese automaker Geely will continue to deal with vehicles fueled by methanol despite the fact that the efforts may fall flat, Chairman Li Shufu said on Sunday.
Zhejiang-based Geely, among few automakers producing methanol-controlled vehicles, is trying methanol taxis in some western Chinese urban areas just as producing methanol-fueled trucks at its commercial vehicles unit.
Li said Geely, which owns Volvo Vehicles and 9.7% stake in Daimler AG invested in Carbon Recycling International, an Icelandic company, to chip away at technologies to produce methanol with carbon dioxide, in order to bring down overall carbon emissions.
“We will continue to investigate methanol vehicle technologies. Obviously it may flop eventually, however at present we are chipping away at it,” Li told an industry meeting in the western city of Chongqing, without expounding.
Methanol fuel would help China’s energy independence as the nation has colossal measures of coal, which can be changed over to methanol. Geely’s Li has likewise said he anticipates that methanol vehicles should be cleaner than fuel models.
Li didn’t offer details of the technology. He said that Geely would grow production of methanol-fueled vehicles.
Geely is likewise developing battery electric vehicles, petroleum electric crossover vehicles and hydrogen commercial vehicles.
China, the world’s greatest auto market, is developing electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
