Geely believes in methanol vehicles as much as it does in EVs

Chairman of Geely, Li Shufu, said in a report by Reuters that the company will press on to keep working on vehicles powered by methanol even though the effort may fail.

Methanol is made from synthesis gas that can be derived from coal, natural gas, or even biomass, which makes methanol a biofuel. Currently, Geely is testing methanol taxis in some western Chinese cities as well as developing methanol-powered trucks at its commercial vehicles unit.

"We will keep exploring methanol vehicle technologies. Of course it might fail in the end, but currently we are still working on it," said Li Shufu in the report.

Geely, which has a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler AG and owns Volvo Cars, has invested in an Icelandic company – Carbon Recycling International – to work on technologies to produce methanol using carbon dioxide that will help lower overall carbon emissions.

Li Shufu said that he expects methanol vehicles to be cleaner than petrol vehicles, which can support China’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. Since China has large amounts of coal that can be converted to methanol, it can boost China’s energy independence.

Meanwhile, Geely is also developing electric vehicles (EV), hybrid vehicles, and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) powered by hydrogen.

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