BYD Auto To Begin Sales of F3DM Plug-in to Individuals
23 March 2010
People’s Daily. BYD Auto says it will place its F3DM dual-mode plug-in electric vehicle (earlier post) on sale to individual buyers on 29 March, with the first sales location to be Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. BYD has sold more than 100 units to governments, banks and other institutions since it entered the market at the end of 2008.
However, the price at 149,800 per car nearly doubled the price of cars that run on conventional fuel. BYD dare not to open sales to the personal buyers without the subsidies from government.
...As one of the first 13 cities to implement energy-saving and new energy vehicles, Shenzhen plans to have 24,000 such cars on the road in 2012 and 100,000 cars in 2015. Some insiders expect that the local government in Shenzhen will not rule out offering subsidies for residents buying BYD’s F3DM, so as to improve the development of electric cars. During the Two Sessions in 2010, Li Yizhong, minister of Information and Industrial Technology, said that the ministry was discussing subsidies for new energy vehicles amounting to tens of thousand yuan with the Ministry of Finance. That gives more confidence for Shenzhen government and BYD to grab the opportunity of electric vehicles.
Back in 2008 I hoped some of these would reach the US for long term testing.
Posted by: kelly | 23 March 2010 at 07:45 AM
I have invented a way to make vehicles lighter and safer at the same time.
It will help electric vehicles become lighter and get better range.
In a few weeks I will be granted a US patent for this invention.
My website is www.safersmallcars.com
The simplest way to get lighter is to remove steel, but steel is needed to absorb collision energy.
The collision death rate of micro vehicles is double that of mid size vehicles.
Please help me promote this invention that can save lives and fuel.
Posted by: shopa | 23 March 2010 at 08:57 AM
BYD and much Chinese technology is running into a wall of bad PR. This is due entirely to refusal to conform to worldwide standards of human rights behavior. The recent decision by Google to quit China is just the first of the major blowback headed toward Beijing.
Censorship, slave labor, support of repressive regimes (Burma, Tibet)will not help China's bid for global acceptance.
Posted by: sulleny | 23 March 2010 at 11:48 AM