Begging Your Dollars: BYD Coming To America. For $40K
You are probably going batty awaiting the American arrival of the all electric Made in China BYD e6. Fret no more: It’s coming! BYD will start selling the plug-in e6 in the U.S. “in 2010,” writes People’s Daily. The price? “Around 40,000 U.S. dollars.”
If you can temper your impatience, you may get it for less. “The selling price is expected to decrease once the production and sales volume increases,” writes the voice of China’s Communist Party.
The car will be sold through the newly established BYD North American sales headquarters in Los Angeles. According to People’s Daily, “the BYD e6 has passed all necessary tests in the U.S.” The charger specs are not quite up to U.S. standards. According to the report, “the super-iron battery can be charged in slow-mode with a 220V power adapter and a 3C adapter in fast charge, filled to 80% within 15 minutes.”
The 3C probably stands to “three cycle,” or “three phase.” A 220V outlet can be quite easily rigged up in your garage. Three phase would be highly unusual.
The all-electric crossover model supposedly will get you “up to 300km” (186m) on one charge of BYD’s “Fe” lithium iron phosphate battery. Its top speed is given as 140km/h (87 mph).
So far, the e6 has been all talk and no action. Two days ago, BYD delivered 40 E6 to a Shenzhen taxi company as part of a field test. By end of June, that number is supposed to climb to 100 e6 taxis.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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we've had this discussion before it won't sell at $40k it MAY sell at $20k but it would need a massive warranty AND it has to do something really unique... ie. 200 miles on a single charge whether Warren Buffett's toy company can do something like this on iron phosphate technology is another matter
Think of alternating current in waves. Three phase electricity is analagous to a 3 cylinder engine. For my analogy, let's use a 2-cycle engine. None of the cylinders fire at the same time on a 3 cylinder, 2 stroke engine, but are 120 degrees out of phase. It is more efficient to push more power through lines in 3-phase so this is how it is done, long distance. Most North American homes only have single phase OUTLETS of about 110 volts, but if my memory serves correctly, often times, 2 phases out of the three are sent to the power box in many homes. This helps balance the overall load and also allows 220 volt devices (such as electric clothes dryers, electric stoves, some earlier front loader Bosch washing machines sold in the USA, welders in a guy's garage, etc.) When the electrical lay-out of a home is done, the electrician normally will try his or her best to balance the load between the two hot wires coming into the house. This helps in keeping the power company's meter more honest and less liable to cheat the customers, as a side benefit. For more information which will go both over your head and mine, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_electric_power
Given: "3C adapter in fast charge, filled to 80% within 15 minutes" "It has a 48kwh pack" So if we assume the charging is from 20% to 80% that's 60% of 48 kW-hr or 28.8 kW-hr. 28.8 kW-hr in 15 minutes is 115.2 kW. For comparison my house (gas heated) is 240 volts and 100 amps and so is 24 kW maximum. So the 3C charger has a power input equal to five houses! Now we are going to have a bunch of these charging stations at office buildings, parking meters, shopping centers. Anyone else see a problem here?
How's the crash test on this thing? I saw those Brillance's crash tests and I am wary of Chinese auto. Meh, if it come with that girl then, I guess, maybe I'll buy it. ^_^ All up coming EVs are ugly, if I have to buy one, I mind as well buy the one I have stocks in, Nissan.