First mass produced plug-in hybrid on sale — and guess what? it is from BYD, China
Dec 18, 2008 Auto Tech
BYD F3DM
While GM is still showing off its Chevy Volt prototypes, China’s BYD has gone ahead and launched the world’s first mass-produced plugin hybrid, the F3Dm. Though the design won’t win any beauty pageants, its cost of 149,800 yuan ($22,000) will surely help, when you compare it with Toyota’s Prius, which costs from 259,800 yuan.
A plug-in hybrid has an electric motor and a conventional (like gasoline) engine, just like the Toyota Prius or Honda Civic or other current hybrids on sale, but its batteries can be charged by connecting it to an electric socket at your home or office and this can be used to extend the range of the vehicle. The Chevy Volt is supposed to be a plugin hybrid, to be on sale in US from 2010, but amidst the current financial crisis, GM faces an uncertain future and has just announced temporary halt of construction at the factory scheduled to produce the Volt’s engine.
The F3Dm can run upto 100km on batteries only. It operates in three distinct modes: a battery-powered EV mode,a series-hybrid mode whereby the gas engine recharges the batteries while the electric motors drive the wheels, and a parallel-hybrid mode whereby both motor and engine drive the wheels. BYD Auto’s parent company is making lithium batteries for the car using lithium iron phosphate cathodes–a safer design than the lithium cobalt oxide cathodes used in cell-phone batteries. BYD is China’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries and it recently got investments from famed investor, Warren Buffet.
Th company says that U.S. sales of the F3 DM will likely start in 2011, once it meets emission and crash test regulations and has set up a dealer network. The company has sold 180000 vehicles last year and plans to almost double this figure next year.
The Prius, the bestselling hybrid in China, may have only racked up 748 sales nationwide in the first ten months of the year 2008. But the F3DM plug-in hybrid reinforces China’s position as a growing green-tech power. It is already one of the top 5 manufacturers of solar panels in the world and unveiling bold initiatives in clean coal technologies.
Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. in September bought 9.9 percent of BYD for HK$1.8 billion ($232 million). The stake sale may help the automaker boost its profile overseas and also reassure potential customers.
Hat tip, Bloomberg.
Tags: BYD, China, hybrid, plugin hybrid
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