BYD Coming to America in 2015
Backed by Warren Buffet and his investment company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.,Automotive News is reporting that Chinese automaker BYD plans to deliver four models to the United States in late 2015.
This move comes after BYD founder and chair Wang Chauanfu spent the past three years reorganizing his company, cutting the number of dealerships under the automaker’s banner while narrowing losses with their solar business with help from state incentives.
In turn, investors rewarded the changes with a 63 percent surge in the share price — currently holding around $5 USD — though nowhere near the peak of $11 BYD saw in October 2008; Berkshire Hathaway paid around $1 per share for 9.9 percent ownership of the company back in that year.
Though BYD has yet to bring over any of their cars to the U.S., they will begin manufacturing of their K9 electric bus in March at its factory in Lancaster, Calif.; a plan to sell the e6 electric hatchback by the end of 2010 was postponed.
Leading the charge will be the Qin (pronounced Chin) plug-in hybrid, which already arrived in local market showrooms last month. The $31,400 (before state subsidies) sedan books it from nil to 60 in under 6 seconds, and possesses a 43-mile range in electric-only travel.
That said, the Qin, along with its electric brethren, may be a better sell in Los Angeles than in Beijing, as high prices, safety concerns, and a lack of supporting infrastructure have held back China’s goal of 5 million alternative-energy vehicles by 2020.
However, the state government unveiled a new program last September which is supposed to alleviate the issue through heavy promotion of new-energy vehicles in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou using subsidies through 2015, which should help BYD in local adoption of their plug-in and EV offerings.
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The same arguments now made against BYD were also made against Hyundai and Kia when they entered the US market, and before that the same arguments were made against the Japanese. When the VW Beetle made its debut in the US it was sold as a niche novelty car. The lack of quality was blatantly obvious but that didn't stop Americans from buying them. Ditto with the Japanese cars, and again later with Hyundai and Kia cars. The Chinese already sell a car in the US. It's called VOLVO! Let the buyers shake out the market. The more choice, the merrier. Look for Toyota, Honda and Nissan to pay rapt attention, like when the Sonata and Elantra got their undivided attention. Hey, choice made things better for the buyers. Choice, my friends. That's what it is all about.
I was hoping the first Chinese car sold in the US would be something like a retooled Volvo 240 with the AMC I6 for like $19000.