China may lead the world with cars and they may be driven by electricity. It is not just theoretical. It is practical. Possible. Even probable. The original article is very detailed, very long, totally fascinating. Click HERE to read it all. Well worth the effort.
Late last year fall Berkshire Hathaway — think Warren Buffett — bought 10% of BYD for $230 million. The deal is awaiting final approval from the Chinese government but Berkshire Hathaway thinks BYD has a shot at becoming the world’s largest automaker, primarily by selling electric cars, as well as a leader in the fast-growing solar power industry.
Wang Chuan-Fu started BYD (the letters are the initials of the company’s Chinese name) in 1995 in Shenzhen, China. A chemist and government researcher, Wang raised some $300,000 from relatives, rented about 2,000 square meters of space, and set out to manufacture rechargeable batteries to compete with imports from Sony and Sanyo. By about 2000, BYD had become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cellphone batteries.
Wang entered the automobile business in 2003 by buying a Chinese state-owned car company that was all but defunct. He knew very little about making cars but proved to be a quick study. In October a BYD sedan called the F3 became the bestselling sedan in China. And BYD has also begun selling a plug-in electric car with a backup gasoline engine, goes farther on a single charge — 62 miles — than other electric vehicles and sells for about $22,000.
Today BYD employs 130,000 people in 11 factories, eight in China and one each in India, Hungary, and Romania.
Please read the whole article. There are those who are betting serious money that this is the way we will go.