Chinese Automaker Unveils First Electric Car 341
JuliusSu writes "A Chinese auto manufacturer, BYD, is introducing today the country's first electric car, a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It plans to sell at least 10,000 cars in 2009 for a price of less than $22,000. This put the company ahead of schedule against other entrants to this market, such as Toyota, due to release a similar car in late 2009; and GM, whose Chevy Volt will be launched in late 2010. The company is best known for making cellphone batteries, and hopes its expertise in ferrous battery technology will allow it to leapfrog established car manufacturers."
Re:I'll believe it when I see it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:1, Insightful)
Bye, bye GM :) (Score:5, Insightful)
GM killed electric trolley public transportation on the East Coast decades ago, pushing for city buses made by GMC that used internal combustion. The VOLT was promoted using jazzy images of impressive body lines that promoted interest, only to release a breadbox as the final design. GM doesn't want the VOLT to succeed, and now with their imminent demise, they may get their wish.
BYD will be in NA in short time, and more like them will follow. I wish them best of luck.
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:5, Insightful)
My understanding is that most (all?) of these plugin hybrids are being designed to fit a standard household electrical socket. I would think if you have a standard GFI outlet in your garage (and I think just about everyone does) you should be fine. Honestly, I don't see how these things would take off if they required rewiring your house just to be able to recharge them.
Re:I'll believe it when I see it (Score:5, Insightful)
Now your comment implies that I am somehow responsible for the current financial crisis either because I make speculative investments or take out/issue bad loans, perhaps based on what Warren Buffet does. Those implications aren't true, nor do they have any bearing on the comment I made. So, I can only assume you're trolling for easy mod points.
You should stop because it only makes you look like an idiot.
Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
About the only thing that is truely american is the arrogance.
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:2, Insightful)
Do what they do for gasoline pumps - put it up high on one side, and get a long enough cord to connect it. If you want maximum flexibility, why not connect it to the ceiling above the center of the car (maybe with a small boom to assist with cable management)? That will keep it out of your way while walking around the vehicle, yet still make it visually obvious whenever it is plugged in.
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:2, Insightful)
If possible, run two.... one near where drivers side fuel door would be and one where passengers side would be.... or in a 2 car garage that has a post in the center, run it to the post... then you can do drivers side of the righthand stall and passengers side of the lefthand stall.
I would run 50 amp 220 and 50 amp 110.
Worst case, if you're wrong, at least you'll have power there that you could use to plug in an emergency backup generator, etc.. and shut off the main breaker, and backfeed from your high amp breaker, into the main box and feed the rest of the house off of it. Lots of rural people I know run their generators that way so that they still have heat and water when the power goes out. They can also run a welder off of the outlet if needed.
Re:Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
True, but don't underestimate the challenges involved in actually assembling a good-looking car that's safe and doesn't break.
Remember the Yugo? Remember how Hyundai was (until recently, anyway)? Hell, (if you're old enough) remember how the Japanese cars once were?
BYD has shown they know how to build laptop batteries. They may be able to scale it up to automobile level (although this is not trivial).
However, they have years to go before they are capable of building automobiles that can compete on safety, comfort and reliability against existing auto makers. They may get there eventually, if they survive that long (Hyundai did, Yugo didn't); however, it's definitely not going to be with their first car. This has nothing to do with being Chinese, and everything to do with being new to market. I wouldn't trust Tesla's first car either, although charging $100K each may give Tesla an advantage in that it can afford to do more over-engineering and cherry-pick good parts than BYD can at its price segment.
Re: I have to wonder (Score:3, Insightful)
Everyone seems to forget or willfully ignore that Toyota also filed similar lawsuits against states trying to impose stricter emission guidelines.
Re:Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff (Score:4, Insightful)
It's packed with Chinese-made parts that have to adhere to American safety regulations.
Is this batch of 10,000 going to do the same?
It's a serious question, btw. At $22k a pop this could very well be the case.
good luck getting support (Score:4, Insightful)
A big challenge to any new player getting into the electro-auto market is dealer support. Where is someone supposed to get parts for this thing or a Tesla? Sure, an electric vehicle design should require less maintenance, but even components will need to be replaced due to accidents and road wear.
I've heard people say the auto bailout money should go to a start-up like Tesla. The problem with completely abandoning the American automakers and putting public funds behind a startup is that the big three already have huge infrastructure in place. They already understand production. Bless the hearts of those Tesla idealists, but they're going to spend a BUNCH of money developing dealerships, parts distribution, training mechanics & sales people. And until their production numbers get big, the deals they'll cut with suppliers won't be as profitable as the ones Ford/GM/Chrysler make with their suppliers thanks to the economies of scale they're working in.
I'm not saying there isn't a place for smaller companies to come in and fill a niche demand. But now isn't the time to abandon the American auto companies and watch them perish. If that happens, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai will assist in a huge transfer of wealth overseas.
Seth
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff (Score:5, Insightful)
True, but don't underestimate the challenges involved in actually assembling a good-looking car that's safe and doesn't break.
Remember the Yugo? Remember how Hyundai was (until recently, anyway)?
Remember Chevy? Remember Ford?
Yeah.
Re:Charging an electric car (Score:3, Insightful)
55 mile range (instead of the advertised 200+).
I think you will find the 200 mile range, like every other range spec, is dependent on your driving style. Thrashing any car, petrol or electric, consumes much more than when driving normally. Tesla were not being deceiving at all, from what I've read.
Re:That elusive simple math (Score:2, Insightful)
A kWh is a measure of energy, and a gallon (US) of regular gasoline (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrol#Density) contains about 9.67 kWh of energy. 15 kWh is roughly 1.55 US gallons. 100 km is roughly 62.1 miles.
The mileage 15 kWh / 100 km is equivalent to about 64.5 miles per US gallon.
I hope I got that right.
Re:People laughed about Japanese cars, too. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or there's the fourth, American kind: the highly paid, unskilled factory worker.
Re:Your "American" car is full of Chinese stuff (Score:3, Insightful)
They said the same thing when the Japanese started making cars... I have no doubt that Chinese companies could engineer cars to meet US/European safety regulations, but at the moment they mainly sell to their domestic less-regulated market, so they save money by having lower engineering standards. If there's money to be made by building to higher standards and exporting to the rest of the world, then they will do it.