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

Re:I'll believe it when I see it

[DeadDecoy]

Well that was a complete non-sequitur and kinda rude. My point was that Warren Buffet (one of the richest men in the world) has made his fortune by investing in companies that actually turn a profit as opposed to typical speculation. Because of his past success and a 10% stake, there's a chance that the Chinese car is not vaporware.

Now your comment implies that I am somehow responsible for the current financial crisis either because I make speculative investments or take out/issue bad loans, perhaps based on what Warren Buffet does. Those implications aren't true, nor do they have any bearing on the comment I made. So, I can only assume you're trolling for easy mod points.

You should stop because it only makes you look like an idiot.

Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff

[EmbeddedJanitor]

That high quality American car is packed to the gunnels with Chinese made parts, including engines.

About the only thing that is truely american is the arrogance.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but don't underestimate the challenges involved in actually assembling a good-looking car that's safe and doesn't break.
Remember the Yugo? Remember how Hyundai was (until recently, anyway)? Hell, (if you're old enough) remember how the Japanese cars once were?

BYD has shown they know how to build laptop batteries. They may be able to scale it up to automobile level (although this is not trivial).
However, they have years to go before they are capable of building automobiles that can compete on safety, comfort and reliability against existing auto makers. They may get there eventually, if they survive that long (Hyundai did, Yugo didn't); however, it's definitely not going to be with their first car. This has nothing to do with being Chinese, and everything to do with being new to market. I wouldn't trust Tesla's first car either, although charging $100K each may give Tesla an advantage in that it can afford to do more over-engineering and cherry-pick good parts than BYD can at its price segment.

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

[Facegarden]

That high quality American car is packed to the gunnels with Chinese made parts, including engines.

About the only thing that is truely american is the arrogance.

Arrogance? You obviously don't know much about chinese cars. It doesn't matter where the parts are made, but american cars aren't ENGINEERED in china. So far all the chinese cars that have been engineered in china have been terrible. I remember one example that looked like any other common car in the US or elsewhere, but it did so poorly in crash testing it couldn't even manage ONE STAR. It was a deathtrap.

Don't call people arrogant without checking your own ignorance. I'm not saying the car can't be good, but given what has come out of china so far, people have a right to be skeptical.
-Taylor

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

[Sponge Bath]

About the only thing that is truely american is the arrogance.

Best in class baby! USA! USA!
...whoops, the steering wheel on my Pontiac caught on fire. [*]

[*] BTW, this actually happened to me on a 5 year old
1986 Pontiac Grand Prix while I was driving it.
I now drive a Toyota.

Re:I'll believe it when I see it

[pushing-robot]

Your entire proof that Buffet has any interest in this venture is a story on Slashdot. That makes you the idiot.

Curiously, I do not share your sentiment about the other poster.

I am, however, fairly confident that you are an imbecile.

People laughed about Japanese cars, too.

[Lonewolf666]

When the first Japanese cars showed up in Europe in the 1970s, they were cheap but had a terrible reputation. That has changed. Today they are on the same quality level (and almost as expensive) as European cars. Toyota even ruled the reliability/breakdown statistics for years, only recently some European models have retaken the lead.

I expect that the same will happen with the Chinese cars. They may have not much experience in car making now, but 10 years from now things can look different.