BYD's Home Invasion

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Ok, so we heard that BYD is moving onto the home appliance market. Now, BYD takes development to a whole new level We hear that they will build whole homes! No drywall comments, please, these are environmentally friendly homes. China’s electric car manufacturer BYD Auto teamed up with California’s KB Home to build new energy homes in Lancaster, California. The first-phase construction of the project has recently been completed, Gasgoo says.

Five new energy homes were built in the first phase in Lancaster, and all five have received an Energy Star from the EPA. The houses combine solar, battery technology and LED lighting.

Of course, the new energy homes come with a jack to charge BYD’s F3DM plug-in electric hybrid and its e6 all-electric cars, which BYD testmarkets in Lancaster. A new building phase has started a week ago. Lancaster will soon be the most plugged-in city in California.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Jul 20, 2010

    "No drywall comments, please, these are environmentally friendly homes." OK, no drywall, just cadmium, lead, and melamine.

  • Atlas_snored Atlas_snored on Jul 20, 2010

    Whenever upstart foreigners are highlighted in the American media, they are greeted with a strange combination of contempt and dismissiveness. Right now BYD is equated with tainted toys (which were procured under the auspices of 'quality' American corporate QC). That makes as much sense as equating GM to recalled American lettuce. Go back a decade or two and it was cool for Detroit acolytes to see Hyundai as knockoff crap. Go back a bit further and we saw Japanese cars as crap. Our derision shifts every few years to the next target. We downplay whatever success the others have achieved, and we're not very good at history anyway. Unfortunately the glib mentality and comments really serve to feed our narcissism, and it allows us to continue to indulge in essentially bad economic policy. You could continue to see things made in ______ foreign place as inherently and permanently inferior. Yet 'them' foreigners are constantly competing and improving and moving up the food chain, while we've hollowed out our economy by continually outsourcing, resulting in lowered living standards for everyone except the very wealthy. Doesn't really matter though, as a lot of you will continue to indulge in this mindset. It could make you feel better, but it also detracts from an honest appraisal of our own issues.

  • Shiney2 Shiney2 on Jul 20, 2010

    This will be interesting to watch. My father and and brother are both in home construction, and it is one of the most corrupt and protected industries there is. Everyone complains about the endless paperwork required to build, but most of it was pushed in by a bought and paid for politician to protect local builders, installers, and suppliers. There is a reason home quality and construction efficiency has not improved like other industries - local zoning and construction laws are designed to protect the status quo. In my experience, which covers most of the Midwest and Texas, small to midsize American towns are incredibly corrupt, with only a few well connected brokers and builders able to get the choice pieces of land or building permits. Everyone else has their paperwork stalled and receives hypercritical inspections whose only purpose is to delay things until the you go broke or sell the project in disgust. Steel home construction in the past has been virtually impossible due to absurd and outdated laws pushed by lumber companies.

  • George70steven George70steven on Nov 24, 2010

    Manufactured homes, that Toyonda may be good at, are still too much like trailers to be taken seriously. et ‘them’ foreigners are constantly competing and improving and moving up the food chain, while we’ve hollowed out our economy by continually outsourcing, resulting in lowered living standards for everyone except the very wealthy. car insurance quotes

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