The small Proton Emas Hybrid 2010 Review
, Posted in
Proton really needs an interesting new hit to win back market share they have lost over the last few years. Perhaps that is why they selected the name "Emas," which translates from Malay into English as "gold." Concept cars are generally done as a ‘what if’ exercise and to gauge public perception and interest before moving ahead with the production version. This is why the one big question put forth at the Proton Concepts microsite is “would you like this to be the future of Proton”. According to Datuk Syed Zainal, it may take another 2 years before we can see a production version of the Proton EMAS on the roads.
A series hybrid is basically an electric car, as long as you have enough juice in the battery packs for the electric motor to function. The Proton EMAS Concept has a range of 50km, which is shorter than the i-MiEV’s 160km range. But note that it isn’t an apple to apple comparison – the i-MiEV’s 160km range is calculated based on the Japanese 10-15 urban mode driving cycle, while Proton’s 50km range is not specified. It might be a mixed mode range or a ‘best effort’ range.
What I want to know now is how efficient the engine is in burning petrol to generate electricity. How many km can the car go on the electricity generated by 1 liter of petrol? That will give us a “km per liter” measurement for when the car is not running on plug-in power. Look after the jump for 4 pix of the engine.
