Upstart Chinese Car Company BYD Releases Plug-In Hybrid. See What You Can Do With No Regulations?
China-based BYD has introduced a plug-in hybrid that can be plugged into a regular electrical outlet, and achieve sixty miles on one charge.
The BYD F3DM is the first mass-produced plug-in vehicle in the world. While the car will not be available in the United States until approximately 2011, according to an article on Bloomberg.com, the release of the vehicle provides a boost for the sagging vehicle market, and for the Chinese market in particular.
- » See also: Is the Renault-Nissan Alliance Going in Two Different Electric Car Directions?
- » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.
Significantly, the vehicle can be powered at a specialized charging station to fifty percent battery capacity, in just ten minutes. In addition, the vehicle has a gas engine backup that can power the vehicle, as well as charge the battery, much like a conventional hybrid.
The F3DM will sell for approximately 149,800 yuan (the equivalent of about $22,000) according to the article. The vehicle faces stiff regulatory hurdles in the U.S market, which is probably the reason that GM, if it’s still around, might have a chance to beat the F3DM to the market with its own plug-in, the Chevy Volt.
A good indication of BYD’s increasing status in the car market: Warren Buffett recently invested about 230 million dollars.
Photo Credit: BYD
Source: Bloomberg
Buffet’s investment is not contingent on the cars ever being sold in the US - as for those stiff US regulations, in addition to safety concerns (ever see a Chinese car face off against an NHTSA crash test? Not pretty … ) some of those regulations involve battery seals and environmentally sound battery-handling.
I don’t want to be seen as this constant sort of skeptic (this is certainly a neat car, coming from China!) but I wouldn’t be handing over the Win quite yet.
Still sad that a company that only made its way into the car business 6 years ago is the first 1 to sell a plug in. All said and done though, the US needs to lessen its regulations a little. It is more important that a car be well built and perform well than survive a nuclear attack.
Perhaps crash test ratings can be placed on the window sticker. Let the consumer decide how much safety they want. You can buy a motorcycle in the U.S. and it’s not very safe in heavy traffic. Why can’t I choose a less safer car if I want to? I drive an F250 or a VW wagon or a motorcycle. I am at all levels of safety by my choice.
I recently rented a Prius and travelled to Tatlayoko Lake, BC, Canada. This small place was in a valley bottom about 30-40km from the main road and mostly downhill, once I got half-way down, the car battery system showed a full-battery. Its flat for about 20km and I drove completely without the gas engine for that distance at which point the battery level showed half charge. So even today a Hybrid can go 20-30km or more without a recharge and I believe that with some optimization a car as light as a Prius or Corolla can go 60Km per charge.
I don’t care for the comment “See What You Can Do With No Regulations”.
First, it’s incorrect. New companies are in a better position to lead this because they don’t have existing plant and equipment. The “old” companies have invested $100s of billions in “old” technology. They have a vested interest in using that to the fullest and not pushing something that would eliminate their barrier to entry.
Second, China is a fascist country. It is NOTHING BUT regulation! Go there and disobey. You won’t do so well.
Third, “de-regulation” in the US is a moniker for “getting the government off our backs”, which is a right-wing device to let capitalists fleece the rest of us. We would still have exploding gas tanks and no seat belts if those ignorant folks got their way.
Fourth, I’ll eat my hat if this company makes more than a few thousand of these per year in 2011. High volume factories cost $10s of billions and we are in a credit crunch after all… money is tight. Remember, Toyota can only sell a small fraction of the Prius’s people want, because of a limit of NiMH batteries. This company will be very “parts limited” unless it has it’s own batter subsidiaries, like the Japanese do.
Good grief Mark, take a chill pill.
First - The title is sarcasm.
Second - The fact of the matter is they have safety and environmental regulations that are minuscule compared to the US’.
Third - Read into it what you want, but nobody was suggesting we deregulate.
Fourth - BYD is the largest battery maker in China, the car market is new to them, so making the batteries should not be a problem.
We also don’t know if the Chinese gov’t is subsidizing that price to make it appear like more of an accomplishment than it is. We have electric cars available right now by an upstart company (Tesla), but they’re for a niche market (rich environmentalists) because they’re too expensive for your average consumer right now.
It’d be interesting to know what Tesla would be able to charge for a small, bland 4-door econobox sedan (like above) that was exempt from safety and environmental regulations. My guess is it would be in the $40K range (that’s roughly 3 times as much as a new Chevy Aveo, for example).
The comments clearly show most of you guys are very ignorant of the BYD Company. BYD is a company led by a true visionary. It is a very socially and environmentally responsible company. For example, it runs its own university to train workers who couldn’t afford such education on their own. It provides medical and food benefit to all its employees. The CEO of BYD does not make 400 times its average worker’s wage (typical of GM, Ford, and Chrysler). The lithium iron phosphate battery it developed for the F3DM is the most advanced LiFePo4 battery in the world. In this battery market space, BYD has no equal. The LiFePo4 battery used by Niel Young in his Lincoln Continental Mark IV hybrid converstion is imported from China and possibily made by BYD. The LiFePo4 has a usable service temperature range of -40C to +70C (-40F to + 158F). LiFePo4 battery will never become thermally unstable. This is the nature of this technology.
Yeah Mark, Those GM pickup gas tanks that exploded were really something. I seem to remember that the TV network that got us the pictures had to fire a bottle rocket into the gas than to get the fire though.
It’s not just the regulations that are hurting US Auto makers. Let’s face it - it’s hard to put a lot of money into R&D when you’re losing billions of dollars a year.
These small companies have a great advantage. They are nimble and willing to take risks. It’s the way it was meant to be.