PETALING JAYA: The Geely-developed powertrain found in the Proton X50 has won the top prize in the China Automotive Industry Awards for Science and Technology.

The award on Oct 28 is the Chinese auto industry's equivalent to the "Nobel Prize."

The award-winning powertrain, available in the 1.5 TGDI Flagship variant of the X50, is the direct fuel-injected turbocharged 1.5-litre 3-cylinder engine mated to a 7-speed dual clutch transmission.

The three-cylinder engine, co-developed by Volvo and its parent company Geely, offers a decent amount of performance, is lightweight, and delivers good mileage.To date, it is used in more than 600,000 vehicles worldwide. In the X50, this engine outputs 177PS at 5,500rpm and 255Nm of torque from 1,500 to 4,000rpm.




The 7DCT transmission was developed by Geely based on Volvo standards, providing a maximum efficiency of 97.2% and 0.2 second shift response time, making it suitable for pairing with the 1.5TD engine.
The 7DCT transmission is estimated to have been fitted to over one million vehicles by the end of 2020.

On perceived engine vibration from a three-cylinder engine, Geely carried out 120 noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) optimisation changes to minimise the issue. It included the dedicated design of 12 key parts such as a vibration damping balancer shaft and the use of a dual mass flywheel with centrifugal pendulum absorber damper.

Currently, the 1.5TD+7DCT powertrain has been exported to 11 countries. They include Malaysia, Britain and Sweden. Geely plans to export it to 27 countries by 2021.

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