From China, with love: Its electric cars will head West in 2010

Martin LaMonica | Aug 25, 2009

BYD's e6, its high-end all-electric car it plans to bring to the U.S. in small numbers next year. (Credit: BYD)

Chinese auto company BYD plans to bring an all-electric sedan in small numbers to the US next year.

The company chairman Wang Chuanfu told the Wall Street Journal that the company, which is part-owned by investor Warren Buffet, is now gearing up for a US push. It plans to raise money by offering shares in the company in China to help finance the expansion.

BYD plans to offer a few hundred of one of its most advanced cars in the US, the five-seat e6, which takes seven to 9 hours to fully charge and has a 250-mile range.

Initially, it will make the US$40,000 car available to "government agencies, utilities and maybe some celebrities" in a specific region, Wang told the Journal during a factory tour of the BYD's lithium-ion battery factory.

Part of the goal with the car introduction is to raise brand awareness of BYD with American consumers, he added.

BYD already sells plug-in hybrid sedans with a small gasoline engine that charges the batteries to fleet owners.

Although BYD is still not well known with most consumers, the company has gotten a lot of media attention, in part because of Buffet's $230 million investment. Also, BYD appears to be one of the front-runners in making electric cars for the mass market.

Other automakers betting on all-electric cars include Coda Automotive, Mitsubishi, and Nissan, which introduced the Leaf earlier this month.

Via CNET Blogs

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