To: jmhollen who wrote (76 ) 11/17/1998 9:32:00 AM From: jmhollen Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 295
News out this morning - check your quote server...... Supporting the recent news release from the company, please consider this information found during a recent web search: ******************************************** China-cabs turning to gas May 26, 1998 General Motors Corporation, IMPCO Technologies, Inc., and FuelMaker Corporation, in co-operation with the Beijing Science and Technology Commission, have completed a 6-month technical training program to prepare Beijing city officials and automotive experts to convert buses and taxis to natural gas. The operation of vehicles properly converted to natural gas is significantly cleaner than gasoline-powered vehicles. A five-passenger taxi designed and built by Beijing Automotive Industrial Corporation Group left Los Angeles this week after being converted to natural gas by a team of three automotive engineers from Beijing who trained at IMPCO's Technology and Automotive OEM Division in Irvine, California. In precision tests the converted taxi showed significant reductions in CO and hydrocarbons, the main factors in automobile pollution, and slight reductions in NOx. The experimental vehicle could achieve even lower emissions with further tuning. The team could not calculate exact improvements because instruments designed for California's strict emissions regulations do not measure accurately levels of emissions as high as the original gasoline taxi. Before the conversion project began, GM, IMPCO and FuelMaker provided two weeks of training throughout the United States and Canada to Beijing officials developing standards and infrastructure for use of natural gas in Beijing's public transportation system. In addition, GM and Beinei Group Corporation engineers recently converted one of their locally manufactured engines to natural gas and validated it in the dynamometer laboratory at Tsinghua University. "Alternative fuel vehicles are of great significance to cities like Beijing that are suffering serious air pollution," said Beijing Vice Mayor Wang Guangtao. "To effectively reduce the air pollution caused by automobile exhaust emission, Beijing has determined to pursue an international co-operation approach in alternative fuel vehicle technology to advance local capabilities. Thecollaboration between GM, IMPCO and Beijing is a very good start." "This co-operation with Beijing is General Motors' most recent example of our long-term commitment to bring clean car technology to China," said GM China President Rudy Schlais. "Our broader effort includes co-operation to increase the acceptance and availability of clean unleaded fuel for today's vehicles, and to develop more affordable electric vehicle technology for the future. We are especially interested in regions where alternative fuels such as natural gas are abundant, and are also interested in larger cities where motor vehicles' exhaust emission is a major environmental concern." The Chinese engineers' training included theoretical and practical lessons on natural gas components, subsystems and vehicles. "Hands-on" experiences included machining, calibration and tuning, strategies for improving emissions performance testing and cost-benefit analysis on different fuel and emissions systems. The visitors drove state-of-the art natural gas vehicle conversions and GM's electrically powered EV1. FuelMaker Corporation briefed the group on refuelling systems, and GM Proving Ground engineers in Arizona and Michigan demonstrated emissions and safety test procedures.