Bemoan Your Delays: BYD E6 Commercial Launch Officially Delayed Until Whenever

A week ago, we ran a story about China’s BYD scaling back – way back – plans to mass produce their E6 pure plug-in. We reported that all they’ll make will be 100 E6 electric cars to be used as taxis in the city of Shenzhen, where BYD is based. Further development of the vehicles will depend on how that test fleet will be doing. At the time, it was only a rumor. Now, the rumor has been confirmed by the BYD man himself, Chairman Wang Chuanfu.

BYD held a press conference in Hong Kong, and The Nikkei [sub] was in attendance. Of course, Wang Chuanfu tried to put a positive spin on it: The E6 will hit the Chinese market in the first half of this year, it will be brought to the U.S. in the second half, said the Chairman.

Slowly, the truth came out. The first deal will be those 100 E6 electric cars, sold to a taxi company in the city of Shenzhen, where BYD is based. Once they “bring” the E6 to the US, they will try to sell it to government entities (good luck on that.)

When will you in the U.S. and I in China be able to buy one, should we be so inclined? No idea. How much will it cost? “Wang stopped short of mentioning the price of the electric car,” says the Nikkei. The Japanese business paper figures it will be around $44,000, a price that will turn BYD’s electric baby into a still-born.

Ah, and what about that factory BYD wanted to build in the U.S.? The Chinese firm will consider building a factory in the U.S. if the car becomes well known there, Wang said. Will consider. If.

The longer this drags on, the more people have doubts that the E6 ever will be commercialized.

According to the Nikkei, “BYD attributes the lag to a delay in the introduction of the government subsidy. But some industry observers say it is possible that technical development is behind schedule.” 200 miles on a single charge would be quite a feat.

Some in China think it’s a PR stunt. “I guess BYD will use the electric vehicle to demonstrate its eco-friendliness in order to boost sales of existing models,” said an official of a Guangdong Province auto dealership. Indeed, BYD’s ICE-powered Corolla-look-alike F3 is a run-away success in China. (Maybe, “run-away success” is not such a good expression anymore. But for a Corolla copy….)