FPT Sets Benchmark for Natural Gas Bus Engines

Designed for urban public transport, inter-city buses, and long-distance luxury coaches, natural gas powertrains are increasingly central to Europe’s low-emission mobility strategy. In this context, Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus has delivered the first batch of buses powered by FPT’s CURSOR 9 Euro VI Natural Gas engine to the public transport authority of Kragujevac, Serbia. This marks the start of a four-year deployment program covering 200 buses intended to expand passenger capacity while supporting the city’s low-carbon mobility targets.

Differentiation Through Power Density, Fuel Flexibility, and Operating Efficiency
The CURSOR 9 Euro VI Natural Gas stands apart in the competitive landscape as the most powerful natural gas engine in its class, delivering diesel-equivalent torque without the traditional trade-offs in performance. Its multipoint injection and stoichiometric combustion architecture enable high thermal efficiency while significantly lowering noise and pollutant emissions.

Unlike many competing solutions, the engine is fully compatible with CNG, LNG, and biomethane, allowing operators to adapt to regional fuel infrastructures and decarbonization strategies without sacrificing performance. Extended maintenance intervals of up to 40,000 km in city bus operations directly reduce lifecycle costs, strengthening its total cost of ownership advantage.



FPT and Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co., Ltd. during the delivery ceremony.

Reliability Under Extreme Climate and Topographical Conditions
Serbia’s operating environment combines cold winters, hot summers, mountainous roads, and altitudes up to 2,000 meters, creating a demanding test profile for public transport propulsion. The deployed buses demonstrate stable operation across extreme temperature ranges while maintaining low emissions, consistent power output, and high mechanical reliability. This operational robustness differentiates the CURSOR 9 from lower-rated natural gas engines that are more sensitive to thermal and altitude variations.

Industrial Scale and Proven Long-Term Partnership
The Kragujevac delivery builds on a decade-long industrial partnership between FPT and Golden Dragon that began in 2014. To date, FPT has supplied approximately 3,000 engines globally, including 600 natural gas units, for vehicles operating across multiple continents. This production scale, combined with long-term field reliability, positions FPT among the reference suppliers for natural gas bus propulsion in Europe.




Strategic Role in Decarbonized Public Transport
The CURSOR 9 platform directly supports CO₂ reduction, pollutant control, and fleet decarbonization targets, aligning with Europe’s tightening emissions regulations. By combining high output, multi-fuel flexibility, long service life, and low operating costs, FPT’s solution answers one of the most searched questions in the market today: how to achieve diesel-level performance with significantly lower environmental impact in public transport fleets.

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