The illumination of cars is limited when they run at night or under other low visibility situations. The drivers have difficulty in seeing the scene and pedestrians in front, which greatly increases the risk of driving. Night vision system based on chalcogenide glasses is more and more used in automotive industry. The advantages and disadvantages of night vision systems are analyzed. A novel optical system based on chalcogenide glass and diffractive optical elements is presented. A diffractive-refractive hybrid night vision system with 30° field of view is designed. The effective focal length and F number are respectively 15 mm and 1. The system is composed of three lenses which use Ge20Sb15Se65, including a conic surface and a diffractive surface. The experimental results show that the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the hybrid system is close to diffraction limit at the spatial frequency of 15 lp/mm. The maximum focal shift is 6.6 μm in the range from -30 ℃ to 50 ℃, which is less than the system focal depth of 20 μm. The system has a compact structure and a good imaging quality.