SHANGHAI, China — Alternative-energy vehicle and battery manufacturer BYD Automobile has announced that it will launch the e6, having gained government approval to produce the plug-in sedan. BYD's e6 will be the company's first pure electric car.
Besides the e6, the new-energy vehicles the government approved included Dongfeng's Fengshen S30 and Changan's Zhixiang.
The e6 sedan is powered by a lithium-ion battery that can be quick charged to 50 percent of capacity in 10 minutes and fully charged in an hour. The car's range is 205 miles on battery power alone on one full charge.
China-based BYD, backed by U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett, will launch the plug-in e6 sedan in China in the first half of this year. It will be priced at the equivalent of about $44,000 and will mainly be supplied to government and public service and to taxi fleets.
By year's end, BYD also plans to begin selling the e6 in the U.S. at a price expected to be about $40,000.
BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu has said that the carmaker is aiming to become the world's largest automaker by 2025. Last year, BYD saw sales jump 130 percent to 400,000 vehicles and has set a sales target of 800,000 units for this year.
BYD was the only Chinese carmaker to attend the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. Its lineup there included the F3DM, the world's first dual-mode plug-in hybrid.
A BYD official commented that the e6, as an important part of the company's "new energy" strategy, will help China's domestic carmakers compete against international rivals such as the Chevrolet Volt, which comes to China in 2011 after its U.S. debut later this year, and the plug-in electric Nissan Leaf, slated for a 2012 launch.
Inside Line says: The electric era is coming ever closer. — Vivian Jin, Correspondent
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