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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2011
37
From the
americas
and affordable – are imminent in the United States. (“BYD Is
the First Ripple in a Potential Chinese Wave,” 18
th
February).
Doubters were invited to consider the example of the
American investor Warren E Buffett, whose Berkshire
Hathaway conglomerate invested $230 million in BYD in
2008. The legendary billionaire was on hand in Shenzhen
to attend the Chinese market debut of the F3DM in 2010.
The latest BYD models will be displayed at a Berkshire
Hathaway meeting in May.
Mr Berman found the build quality and materials of the
F3DM to be adequate for utility-oriented Americans, even
as he acknowledged the car’s minor flaws: wobbly storage
compartment between the front seats, subpar floor mats,
squishy handling. But to focus on these, and on the F3DM’s
inconspicuous sheet metal and boring driving experience,
would be, he cautioned, to miss the audacity of BYD’s
strategy.
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❖
“Think of the F3DM as a Chevrolet Volt [sticker price:
$40,280] with a Wal-Mart price tag,” he wrote. “The
F3DM is a car with a large-capacity battery that delivered
31 miles of uninterrupted pure-electric driving for me – as
well as a gasoline engine that gives it the ability to go an
additional 300 miles.”
As for the car’s maker, BYD says the current F3DM will be
sold in limited numbers to US corporate fleets.
A new and improved version – possibly with a new name,
as well – is in the works for individual car buyers.
Of related interest . . .
❖
❖
Even as the Chinese-made BYD strives for a place in the
US market, auto makers industrywide are in a push for a
share of the Chinese market. This eagerness on the part
of, among others, General Motors – which already sells
more cars in China than in the United States – is raising
some concerns that the world’s car companies may be
investing too heavily in China, creating an automotive
bubble and setting themselves up for disappointment, at
the least.
Bain & Co, the Boston-based global management
consulting firm, has warned that factories in China could
be capable of turning out 40 million cars a year by 2015,
35% more than the market can absorb, even with exports
taken into account. The cost of unused plant capacity
could hurt profits and reduce the advantages of producing
in China, Bain said in a November report.
An even earlier reckoning is projected by a study
published in January by the Netherlands-based auditing
and accounting firm KPMG, which suggests that China
will have too many automotive plants within five years.
The industry, the KPMG analysts wrote, “may have to
brace itself for some casualties.”