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China's electric car ahead of the curve
Visitors view a BYD F3DM electric vehicle in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, China.
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Scott Jagow: The real car story of the morning comes from China. A Chinese company unveiled a new electric car. And our man Scott Tong was at the unveiling. Scott, tell me about the car.
Scott Tong: Well, the car doesn't look spectacular around the outside, I have to tell you. They unveiled it and it looks like a Corolla. But the magic is on the inside. This car has a plug-in battery that is said to be two years ahead of the competition, because it's on the mass market here. And it's superior to what the Japanese and to what GM are developing now. It goes longer, farther per charge, and it charges up faster than the competition's.
Jagow: OK, so where can I get one?
Tong: You can come join me in China, that would be the quickest way. Or you can move to Scandinavia, which is where they're going to export some of them next year. Or if you hang around, this Chinese company called BYD wants to export them within a couple years to these larger markets, like North America or Europe.
Jagow: Scott, what evidence do we have that this really will be a mass-market seller?
Tong: We have $230 million of evidence in the form of investment from Warren Buffett. So that's good enough for most of us. Earlier this year, he decided to invest this much money, and what it seems like is he believes this company is on the cutting edge of this battery technology. And what's interesting about this Chinese company BYD is it started out as a battery company, making mobile phone rechargeable batteries or making laptop rechargeable batteries. And some executives have actually come out and said, you know, making a mobile phone is really hard, making a car is easier.
Jagow: Marketplace's Scott Tong, reporting from Hong Kong. Thanks.
Tong: OK Scott, thanks a lot.
Jagow: And by the way, the car goes for about $21,000.
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please find our electric car from CHina:
http://www.chinaeu.de/
please find our electric car from CHina:
http://www.chinaeu.de/
WHY ALL THE FUSS ABOUT THIS CAR FROM BYD, IT MIGHT BE A GREAT CAR AND IT MIGHT NOT. NOT MUCH OF A TRACK RECORD AND NOT EVEN ABLE TO MEET STRINGENT U.S. SAFETY STANDARDS, WHICH IS WHY IT WON'T EVEN BE MARKETED HERE FOR ? HOW MANY YEARS? HAS ANYONE EVEN CONSIDERED THE CODA 4 DOOR, 5 PASSENGER SEDAN? THIS CAR, A BEAUTIFUL ALL ELECTRIC SEDAN MADE BY CALIFORNIA BASED CODA AUTOMOTIVE, SHOULD HIT THE CALIFORNIA MARKET IN 2010 AND FEATURES A REAL WORLD DRIVING RANGE OF 90-1OO MILES. POWERED BY A 134 HP.UQM POWER PHASEMOTOR MOTOR. BUILT BY UQM TECHNOLOGIES IN COLORADO, AN ANTICIPATED 5 STAR CRASH RATING, FAST CHAREG TIME( AS LITTLE AS 6 HR. FOR FULL CHARGE)AN 8 YEAR/ 100K BATTERY COVERAGE AND COST IN THE MID $30,000S AFTER FEDERAL TAX CREDIT, WHATS NOT TO LIKE? CHECK IT OUT HELP SUPPORT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES.
There is, as usual, a lot of biased misinformed comment here, especially regarding batteries. Nobody in their right mind would release a car today using NiMh batteries; they are much too heavy and the power/weight ratio is far in excess of any lithium technology.
Lithium batteries have historically had drawbacks such as limited cycle life (approx. 300 charges) and temperature sensitivity, not to mention being very expensive. Nobody points out that BYD is a BATTERY company that, unlike Sony, makes lithium batteries that don't explode, makes far more lithium batteries than anybody else, and has pioneered new iron-based technology that is far superior to anything else to date.
The success or failure of any electric vehicle starts and ends with the battery, there is no way around that.
But there is still huge scope for bungling and mismanagement in the area of battery charging and the obvioulsy necessary concept of swapping stations. Greed will prevail as always and all participants will be touting their own proprietary charge-and-exchange system. The likelyhood of the universal battery needed to get this off the ground ever coming to fruition is very small. Everybody wants to get on the environmentally friendly bandwagon until they find they can't make a buck from it.
To Scott Kilgore re:suggestion on swapping batteries. This is already happening in Israel. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705518,00.html
Currently a rooftop PV solar arrays would not be able to generate enough power to recharge an electric car's battery in one afternoon. I agree that a NiMH battery pack instead of a lithium ion pack could make sense for the Chevy Volt. What I don't like is that Lithium ion can overheat. BYD is useing LiFePO4 batteries which reportedly don't overheat. The main challenge for BYD in importing to the USA - would be safety standards (airbags, rollover, Electrionic stability Controls). BYD F3dm is essentially a zero emission vehicle so getting it to pass the emission requirements should be easy.
BYD has plans to roll out another production PHEV called the F6dM
and a EV called the E6 too. I'm, not sure about Warren Buffett - is he going to help BYD enter the USA market or is he just looking to be bought out? He's a crafty fox.
I am wondering how electric vehicles work under extreme weather conditions such as we experience here in the Northeast. For example, how efficient is an electric car when the outside temperature drops well below zero Fahrenheit? I also want to see one rocked out of a snowbank or operated gingerly on black ice. They may be great, but I still want to see.
I think there is way, way to much hype about this vehicle. As a engineer who has dealt with Chinese auto parts manufacturing, I strongly feel there is a high probability that this car will fall short of all of the boasting the manufacturer (That the media is all to willing to entertain). As is the case with the Chinese domestic car maker "Cherry Motor Corp", China has yet to prove that it can make a decent quality "conventional" vehicle, let alone an reliable electric car. The Chevrolet Volt could be rushed to market in 6 months, but GM is choosing to pick the battery and drive train a part with a fine tooth comb before putting it into production..... This is a car that GM will be putting a substantial warranty on (50 K - 100 K ??), not to mention the company's reputation.
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