East meets green: Michelin takes its Challenge Bibendum clean car road show to the world's fastest growing automotive market

Automotive Industries, Dec, 2004 by John Peter

Shanghai China was the site of the 2004 Michelin Challenge Bibendum, an annual event in its fifth year, designed to promote the research and development of clean vehicles. While the brain trust was locked behind doors at the College for Automotive Studies at Shanghai's Tongii University, formulating ideas that will help China fuel its rapidly growing car park without permanently damaging the world's ecology, or sucking up all of its oil supply, the hardware was lined up along the pit road at Shanghai's brand-spanking-new Formula One racing venue, The Shanghai International Circuit, to compete in the two-day competition.

One hundred fifty vehicles were presented at the Challenge Bibendum 2004, with 74 vehicles (38 cars, 20 two-wheelers, 15 buses and 1 truck), competing in the performance contest.

Vehicles were graded in seven award categories including acceleration, braking, noise, emissions, fuel efficiency, C[O.sub.2] emissions tank-to-tire and passenger cars performed on a slalom course.

Most all of the major OEMs were present in some form or another except for Honda, whose absence was made more noticeable in a racing facility lined with Honda billboards. The only Honda vehicle present was a European Accord 2.2 i-CTDi wagon that was part of the thirteen-car Bosch-sponsored clean-diesel fleet (including everything from a BMW 740d on down to the tiny Lancia Ypsilon). The Bosch fleet provided quite a bit of entertainment during the afternoon media drive sessions. The track was filled with the constant sound of squealing rubber as the international media tried valiantly to drive the tires off of everything on pit lane.

General Motors, who kicked off the week's festivities early with a Monday morning press conference in downtown Shanghai, where they presented the city with a hybrid-electric bus, grabbed quite a bit of attention at the track with the full-size Chevrolet Silverado hybrid pickup. A continuous long line of European and Asian journalists as well as Chinese officials waited their turn to toss the massive American truck around the 3.4-mile race track.

Ford Motor Company entered six vehicles including two Escape hybrids and two fuel cell-powered Focus sedans. Ford also used one of the many Bibendum Challenge press conferences to present its 2.3L supercharged, hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine to the Asian media. Ford says the engine meets Tier 2 BIN2 emissions regulations with a 90 percent reduction in C[O.sub.2] emissions and could be ready for production in less than two years--the problem still being the lack of hydrogen stations to fuel the engines.

DaimlerChrysler, who was represented in the competition by two Mercedes AC]ass fuel cell vehicles, also chose to entertain the media during the ride and drive portion by bringing out both a diesel-powered Smart fortwo and forfour.

Volvo used the Challenge Bibendum to debut the 3CC concept car. Project Chief Engineer, Orjan Sterner says that the theory behind the three-seat coupe is that people won't drive an environmentally efficient car if it doesn't look good. The focus of the concept is on fluent design featuring a sweeping tapered greenhouse that accentuates the strong Volvo-esque shoulders on the rear quarters. The interior theme is elegant simplicity and safety with both driver and passenger buckled in with four-point shoulder belts. The vehicle's rear seat has two sets of four-point belts and is designed to set one adult or two children. The 3CC is powered by a 400-volt lithium ion battery pack made up of 3,000 AA-battery-size cells and mounted under the floor, but Sterner says that a small diesel or hybrid powertrain could be used.

Audi and Volkswagen each brought a fuel cell prototype demonstrating their unique working relationship when it comes to fuel cell development. While both vehicles share the same basic powertrain architecture, that architecture is fitted to two very different vehicles. Audi has chosen the A2 platform while VW uses a Touran.

Marcus Romba of VW's fuel cell development team, says that this allows them to test two different components at the same time to find the one that works best.

"The point is that we've got several grants in the Volkswagen group and we have to have demonstrators of all the brands, like Audi, VW and so on," says Romba. "So Audi is able to build its own demonstrator, the A2, and we build our demonstrator. Everything that is not brand dependent is done together. But building demonstrators, a very brand-related activity, is everyone's responsibility. From then until now we have increased reliability, safety operational procedures and everything else."

China entered 43 vehicles in competition including 20 two-wheeled vehicles (the first time for this category at Bibendum) and 15 buses. But the most interesting (and maybe most unusual) Chinese vehicle represented, what I think is the true spirit of Bibendum. Lin Qingguo, the head of rocket engine development at the Shanghai Institute of Space Propulsion, entered the HABO 1, a Volkswagen Santana that runs on hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide is pumped from a tank mounted in the back seat and runs through a series of valves that control the flow rate. These valves feed to a small tank that holds a catalyst. When the [H.sub.2][O.sub.2] comes in contact with the catalyst, the chemical reaction produces heat (up to 700 degrees C) which creates steam that drives a turbine connected to the front wheels. The byproduct (noticeable after the vehicle's first run) is steam--lots of steam.