BYD: EV? What EV? Anybody Seen An EV?
Wasn’t BYD the miraculous Chinese company that would bring electric cars to the masses? Weren’t they supposed to go hundreds of miles on a single charge? Forget about it. So far, their electric cars are being tested as taxis in Shenzhen in low numbers. What if you would be crazy enough to buy one yourself? They won’t sell you one.
On top of the long series of nasty BYD stories, Gasgoo reports now that BYD “may postpone private purchase of its pure electric car, the e6, until next June.” Why? It’s not BYD’s fault, oh no. It’s “due to insufficient infrastructure in China.” BYD emphatically denies that it has problems with the technology.
Nah, there are not enough electrical outlets. According to BYD flaks, “an extensive cooperation and support is needed instead, particularly because the all-electric vehicles that rely more on the charging stations. Lacking in infrastructure will seriously inconvenience users.”
BYD is now officially worried that launching a pure electric car before the infrastructure is there may kill consumers’ enthusiasm for electric cars. Therefore, BYD is considering to launch the e6 car after the infrastructure is mature.
In other words: Not anytime soon.
But what about the BYD F3DM plug-in hybrid? It’s not hampered by nasty infrastructure problems. Therefore, it’s a runaway success. BYD already sold “nearly 300 units of the car,”
If I’d be Buffett, I’d hope my other investments will do better.
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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I have to ask: If BYD electrics could go hundreds of miles on a single charge, and I, too, remember them bragging that one up, why would public charging stations be so critical to their success? I also remember BYD promising, and a lot of the "green" blogs believing, that by now the U.S. would be awash in BYD electric cars and main stream manufacturers would be out of business. Smoke and mirrors meets reality.
If Berkshire Hathaway are selling their BYD shares, I'll bet they are doing so quietly.
What you are missing is the story about the Chinese government bureaucracy, seizing seven of BYD's brand new car plants, because they were partially built on agricultural land without getting all the proper permits. So they currently have no factories to make the electric cars, until this mess is cleaned up. OUCH !! http://chinabystander.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/byd-fined-loses-factories-for-illegal-land-use/ See link above...