Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car

JuliusSu writes "A Chinese auto manufacturer, BYD, is introducing today the country's first electric car, a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It plans to sell at least 10,000 cars in 2009 for a price of less than $22,000. This put the company ahead of schedule against other entrants to this market, such as Toyota, due to release a similar car in late 2009; and GM, whose Chevy Volt will be launched in late 2010. The company is best known for making cellphone batteries, and hopes its expertise in ferrous battery technology will allow it to leapfrog established car manufacturers."

Comments

I'm getting a WATER powered car ...

[Roark Meets Dent]

Water-Powered Car Incredible invention by Stanley Meyer (R.I.P.)
Water-Powered Car 2 Another one, just unveiled in 2008 by Japanese company Genepax.
Water-Powered Car 3 Denny Klein's car goes 100 miles on four ounces of water.
Water-Powered Car 4 Daniel Dingel runs his car on water, too.
Water-Powered Car 5 Yet another website on the subject.

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Re:Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff

[JWSmythe]

    It really depends on the car. Sure, the cheap ones have a lot of Asian parts.

    My car is a good ol' American car (kinda). 2000 Pontiac Firebird TransAm WS/6, a product of General Motors. It was assembled in Canada. :)

    The engine is an LS1. The engine block is cast in Ontario, Canada.

    I'm pretty sure the body sheet metal and plastics were made in Canada, but I couldn't find a reference for that.

    When I changed my water pump and power steering pump, they both had "Made In Canada" stickers on them.

    The radio is a Delco/Delphi Monsoon. Delphi has (or had) 29 plants in the US, and others worldwide.

    There are various Bosch products in the car too. Those were likely manufactured in the United States, but I believe they have worldwide operations also.

Re:yeah

[networkBoy]

+1 unknowingly insightful.

Total environmental damage from my oil (fuel) burning Benz? relatively low.
Vs. Prius? I win.
Assuming I repair the car when it needs it (which I do), rather than tossing it out and buying the prius to replace it, I will have saved gobs of energy as follows:
smelting bauxite to aluminum (high energy cost)
mining Nickel (high environmental cost)
shipping raw nickel to china for sintering and foaming into battery electrodes (high fuel cost)
performing said sintering and foaming (high energy and environmental cost)

The list simply goes on and on.
I can do so much more for the environment by simply keeping my 25 year old car and repairing it as needed (heck get two, they're cheap... now) than if I went out and bought the latest "eco car". As an added bonus I get to ride in something that's nice, comfortable, solid, that I can repair (sometimes with help), and that uses much less fuel than people think.

The Prius is supposed to be good in stop and go because when you're stuck there you're not burning fuel right? I can idle my car for 8 hours on only a sip more than 2 gallons of diesel.
-nB