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BYD Aims to Enter U.S. Market in 2015
Electric-vehicle maker BYD Co. tells Bloomberg News it will roll out an array of electric and hybrid cars in the American market beginning about two years from now.
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Electric-vehicle maker BYD Co. tells Bloomberg News it will roll out an array of electric and hybrid cars in the American market beginning about two years from now.
Stella Li, who heads the Chinese company's operations in the U.S., says the lineup will probably be led by the 189,800-yen ($31,400) Qin compact plug-in hybrid sedan that went on sale in Beijing and Puerto Rico last month.
BYD is partly owned by Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. The company itroduced its first EV, the e6 crossover, in China in 2010. The car debuted there a year later than scheduled, and plans to bring it to the U.S. in were repeatedly delayed and finally abandoned.
Li concedes that BYD's early enthusiasm was offset by a lack of capital, brand image or competitive product. Now, she tells Bloomberg, the restructured company intends to compete on quality and innovation rather than low price.
BYD already markets small volumes of electric buses to U.S. fleet operators. It also plans in March to begin local assembly of the coaches in California. Li did not say how the company will distribute and sell the Qin in America.
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