SAIC to Launch Roewe 750 Hybrid This Year

08 April, 2010 07:40:00

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SAIC Motor, China's largest carmaker, will reportedly launch its first self-developed hybrid car this year and a plug-in hybrid car by 2012.

As a part of its plans to develop green vehicles, SAIC will launch Roewe 750 hybrid to the market later this year.

The Roewe 750 hybrid will be refitted from SAIC's existing Roewe 750, a mid-sized sedan based on the Rover 75 platform that SAIC purchased from the England-based MG Rover Group in early 2005. The car will be a mild hybrid, which uses an electric motor to assist propulsion, is incapable of propelling the car alone. The Hybrid Roewe 750 will burn 20 percent less fuel the standard Roewe 750.

The plug-in hybrid model, which SAIC is still working on, is based on its Roewe 550 platform. The plug-in hybrid will be launched by 2012 and will save more than 50 percent less fuel, Reuters reported today, citing a senior executive of the company.

The plug-in hybrid will use li-ion batteries made by Shanghai Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co., a joint venture SAIC and U.S. battery maker A123 Systems.

SAIC - a longtime partner of General Motors and Volkswagen in China, in November 2008 invested $300 million on the development of hybrid and electric vehicles and last year said it will invest additional $880 million to develop and manufacture green cars over the next two years.

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