Renewable Gossip

The race to provide the world with affordable plug-in cars has a wild card: China’s BYD, the car and battery company backed by investment guru Warren Buffet. A combination of powerful forces—an enormous burgeoning domestic market, battery expertise, and low cost production—gives credence to the company’s plans to sell millions of hybrid and electric cars within just a few years. That’s if BYD can overcome its challenges and technical hurdles. And that’s a big If.

BYD’s F3DM plug-in hybrid was unveiled at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. It went on sale this year in China, but in very limited numbers.

The Wall Street Journal’s “China Realtime Report” blog is reporting that BYD’s e6 all-electric car is hardly ready for the US market—despite plans to bring the vehicle to the US next year. An unnamed “tech chief of a global automaker” recently drove the car, and said he was ‘truly astonished that they plan to sell such a half-baked car” in China later this year. He said the ride was “rough” and the handling was “squishy.” If the quality problems persist, BYD will have a hard time selling the e6 at the anticipated price of US $45,000.

The Wall Street Journal added, “BYD doesn’t have a good track record in keeping promises on product launches, and some industry observers suspect there may be technical glitches plaguing its green cars, which include a plug-in hybrid car called the F3DM, in addition to the e6.” Last December, BYD became the first automaker in the world to sell a plug-in hybrid car, the F3DM, but sold fewer than 100 through August, according to Gasgoo, a website reporting on the Chinese auto industry.

Yet, the promises keep coming.

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