a: Lets see if it really pans out.
b: Get your skates on GM et. al. - the Chinese are coming!

People might accept a few rough edges if they really had a decent PHEV. It might not have Toyota levels of quality, but a real, serial/parallel hybrid is not to be sniffed at.
Well done BYD.

I wonder whether they have any patent issues with A123's technology.

If they have any plans to export this vehicle to the U.S. they will have to worry about patent infringement.

I envision a company in which every vehicle shares key components:
Genset, AC system, battery, control electronics, and even electric motors. An additional battery could be swapped in to accomodate better EV performance or facilitate a heavier vehicle. Components could be over-engineered but still be very cheap due to economies of scale.

It would appear that BYE is gravitating toward this model.

BYD will have to sort out a few technology copying issues before they can become a major exporter of cars. I wonder if their designs are too upscale for the Chinese domestic market.

This is great, unless you consider that there is no market for high-tech drivetrains in China because gasoline is subsidized to the equivalant to pennies per gallon.

It's been said before, China will have $10K to $15K PHEVs on the road before GM's $40K+ Volt. Of course, the Big Three will find a way to block or delay importation. Our politicians will try to buy votes with 300% tariffs etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about who manufactures the batteries because the majority will be from China within a few short years. The A123 + other USA batteries may very well be manufactured by BYD.

We can't compete with battery packs, control systems, electric motors and many other car parts. Our involment may eventually be restricted to R & D, prototypes, sales, local transport, + ongoing maintenance and repair services. TVs, PCs, Radios, Phones, office equipment, appliances etc are leading examples.

Toyota will have a Serial Hybrid out before GM. It will work better.
The Volt is Vaporware. Greenstalling.
Just look at the original design. It looked like a bad Jr. High school students doodling. It looked like it should have a Hemi in it! As aerodynamic as a brick too. There is no way it was a real car when announced, any focus group of environmentaly interested potential early customers could have told them that.

Can someone explain to me why GM had a EV-1 variation at the Bejing AUto show in 98 with a BEV range extender(small gas turbine with a recuperator) and now can not figure out how to get 40 miles on a PHEV?

Why not NiMH batteries today? The Rav-4 electrics BEV are still on the road with a proven battery and had over 120 miles range. Take out 2/3 of the battery and use the reduced mass to add a PZEV, 2 cylinder, HIgh RPM turboed engine driving a 400 Hz Alternator.

Thank you Wang Chaunfu.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technology could have an instant infrastructure if they installed recharge stations at all the Chinese restaurants. *(two hours later and your car is hungry again).

The Pentagon's annual report on Chinese power should have noticed China was developing better cars to cripple its competitors "spaced out" technology.

and they are having fuel delivery problems because the refineries are losing money.. so there is a market for plug ins.. and lets not forget the air quality in big Chinese cities.

sjc:

One million plug-ins is nothing for China.

Or about 300+ million plug-in biclyles, cars, trucks, buses etc. That's where China will be within one decade.

The solution to that is to control them, just like utilities control millions of water heaters and air conditioners.

Joe Padula - I agree the Volt is vaporware. On gm-volt.com, they're already claiming they are spending $1 billion on it. Where have I heard that number before? Er, yes, what they claim ad nauseam they spent on the...EV1.

And they have the nerve to come and say their original Volt design had brick aerodynamics and brag about it when the EV1 had Cd0.26.

But the trouble with NiMH is while they sat stalling it since 1998 is that Cobalt prices have gone through the roof (for LiIon batteries demand) and even with planned big increases in production, there won't be enough cobalt to make meaningful numbers of NiMH batteries, at affordable/ predictable price.

A Prius use 1.4kg of Cobalt - so a Volt 16kWh NiMH battery would use 14kg: 100,000 Volts would use 1400 tonnes out of global cobalt production of 60,000 tonnes. Difficult, price distortion comes in. One car manufacturer alone producing a miserable 100,000 cars uses 2.3% of global Co production? 1M Volts use 23%. Not possible.

And Lithium availability is even worse for car sized LiIon batteries.

We need cobalt free NiMH, Zebra that uses a third the Ni of NiMH, ZnAir or even advanced PbA.

The Volt - yes, 10,000 a year they promise out of annual US car sales of 17M.