The Car Hub

The headlong rush into electric driven cars has recently been given another push with the news that the UK government has promised up to £5000 to buyers who purchase a new electric car, starting in 2011.

Sounds ok on the surface but who is going to make all these new electric cars available and then at an affordable price?

Step forward BYD and step forward Warren Buffet.

Who are BYD I hear you ask. Answer, a Chinese car maker set up in 2003, whose parent company was only established in 1995 which gives you an idea of how fast they have developed. The parent company also just happen to be the world’s largest supplier of rechargeable.

In China BYD built and sold 24,000 plug-in hybrid cars in January this year for its home market and is to produce 400,00 annually. With the Chinese middle classes numbering between 100-150 million in these prosperous times they will all be wanting to part-ex their old bicycles for a clean, affordable, fuel efficient car.

BYD claim that their batteries can be removed from the vehicle and recharged overnight from a household supply and will not degrade until they have been fully charged 2000 times and even then only lose only 20% of their capacity.

Even before Warren Buffet invested $250 million to gain a 10% stake in the company BYD had announced plans to open their first market in Europe in Denmark in 2011.

The Toyota Prius might be the UK leader in electric hybrid sales at the moment but if BYD continue with their plans to be world number one carmaker by 2025 then Warren Buffet’s investment looks a very, very safe bet.