When most people think of hybrid powertrains, they think Toyota. And when people think of Chinese brands, they think of fully electric drivelines. But if it depends on Geely, the parent company of Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, and many more, those reflexes are becoming increasingly outdated.
That’s because the sprawling Chinese group has been quietly building one of the most technically ambitious hybrid programs in the industry. This has now culminated in the announcement of the i-HEV system, which holds the Guinness World Record for thermal efficiency in a production hybrid powertrain.
Three generations in five years
Geely’s hybrid story began in 2021 with the Leishen system, marketed internationally as NordThor, which achieved 43.32% thermal efficiency with a three-speed dedicated hybrid transmission.
Solid for its time, and already shattering technology pioneer Toyota with its acclaimed 41% efficienct. Leishen evolved last year, achieving 47.2% efficiency in a unit.
The Chinese manufacturer has kept pushing to widen the gap with its Japanese rival further. Yesterday, it unveiled the Intelligent Energy Hybrid (i-HEV), a hybrid driveline achieving an unparalleled thermal efficiency of 48.4%, translating into a fuel consumption of 2.22 liters per 100 kilometers (under favorable WLTC conditions).
Guinness World Records
To celebrate the milestone, a Guinness World Records inspector was invited to certify the values officially. A touch of clever marketing, of course, but also a showcase of how serious the Chinese brands are in the field of combustion engines, beyond batteries and e-motors.
The i-HEV driveline achieves its strong results through the integration of AI-based energy management, trained on over 1,000 driving scenarios. This extends battery longevity by 15% through more precise low-current management.
Furthermore, the i-HEV is mated to a drivetrain delivering 230 kW, realizing accelerations from 0 to 30 km/h in 1.84 seconds. Geely wants it to feel more like a sports car than a fuel-saver.
Together with Volvo
Three engine options pair with Geely’s electric drive unit: a naturally aspirated 1.5, a turbocharged 1.5, and a turbocharged 2.0. The latter two are of peculiar interest.
Not only because they combine hybrid gasoline technology with turbocharging, but also because these engine blocks are jointly developed with Volvo. As such, the innovation could break ground in models from the Swedish manufacturer as well.
Geely isn’t the only Chinese car brand focusing on hybrid technology optimization. BYD’s fifth-generation DM-i, a bestseller in Europe, achieves a thermal efficiency of 46.06%, demonstrating how Japanese car brands are being forced back into their beloved field of expertise. But Toyota’s real advantage is the one that doesn’t appear in a spec sheet: three decades of real-world reliability data.
