Geely investing big in methanol-powered vehicles

Geely has announced it will continue to invest heavily in the development of methanol-powered vehicles in a bid to dump Big Oil and slash emissions.

The parent company of Volvo and Lotus says methanol-powered vehicles offer significantly better emissions than conventional petrol and diesels and could be produced from sustainable sources.

Methanol can also be produced from coal, something China has an abundance of, which could see the company less reliant on Big Oil and help the country's push towards energy independence from the outside world.

As part of its investment in the low-carbon tech, Geely says it's already developed a fleet of taxis that are operating in western Chinese cities, plus methanol-powered trucks that will soon begin testing.

Perhaps more intriguingly, Geely says it has invested in Icelandic firm Carbon Recycling International, which has developed techniques that produce methanol from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in a bid to reduce overall carbon emissions.

Despite the promise of the new tech, Geely chairman Li Shufu admitted during a press conference that methanol still might not transition from concept to reality as the Chinese car-maker transitions to other more established tech like pure-electric power.

Announcing that Geely, which sold 1.3 million vehicles in China alone last year, would continue to invest heavily in alcohol-powered vehicle technology, Li said: "We will keep exploring methanol vehicle technologies. Of course, it might fail in the end, but currently we are still working on it."

As well as methanol, Li said Geely is continuing to develop hybrid, pure-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles, with the latter being engineered for commercial vehicles.