World's first series production plug-in hybrid car goes on sale today

[Chromer]

And it's not from the big 3. Or Toyota or Honda. It's Chinese...

From AutoBlog Green

China's first plug-in hybrid, BYD's F3DM, goes on sale today

Posted Dec 15th 2008 at 1:01PM by Sebastian Blanco


The first mass-produced plug-in hybrid from a Chinese company, the F3DM from BYD, goes on sale today. You can get it in China for the equivalent of $20,000 today, or wait until 2011 and buy one here in the US. The F3DM (the DM stands for "dual mode") uses a ferrous battery and can go 60 miles in electric-only mode. BYD expects to sell 10,000 units next year.

That all sounds very good, but BYD is new to building cars - the company's first model, the F3, went on sale in 2003 - and faces a lot of hurdles for public acceptance, at least outside of China. BYD (Build Your Dreams) does make more rechargeable batteries for things like cell phones and laptops than anyone else and investor Warren Buffett spent $230 million for an almost 10 percent stake in BYD a few months ago. These are signs that the company's goal to be the world's largest automaker has at least a little something to stand on, but Honda, for one, remains unimpressed. We'll be sure to keep an eye out for BYD's main floor presence at the Detroit Auto Show in a few weeks. Until then, check out pictures from previous BYD booths in the galleries below.

Cliff notes: All electric range of 60 miles. $22,000. US sales planned for 2011.



More from the LA Times

The Volt might have some competition...

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[Chromer]

Oh, and because guaranteed someone will mention suspect Chinese safety engineering, here's a F3 (conventional powertrain) being crash-tested by Euro NCAP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAskc...eature=related

It appears to do exactly what is supposed to happen...

[shikataganai]

awesome. buffett's backing actually means quite a bit to me. i hope to see these available soon.

[adj789]

60 miles? that's bad

[sasquatch95]

Originally Posted by shikataganai

awesome. buffett's backing actually means quite a bit to me. i hope to see these available soon.

yeah and you can only get it insured with GEICO!

[Chromer]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Originally Posted by adj789

60 miles? that's bad

Bad? A Prius with the EV-mode hack goes 5 miles before the gas motor has to kick in, and the Volt is going to go 40 before that happens. 60 is class-leading.
You do realize this is still going to have a gas motor, right?

[Hites]

Originally Posted by Chromer

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)



Bad? A Prius with the EV-mode hack goes 5 miles before the gas motor has to kick in, and the Volt is going to go 40 before that happens. 60 is class-leading.
You do realize this is still going to have a gas motor, right?

he probably doesnt. hes a retarddd.

[monovich]

So how exactly did they beat GM to market with this? could it be that GM just wasn't as motivated as they were?

Alternative energy is the new space race, someone is going to emerge the de-facto leader, and I hope we (US) don't miss this opportunity.

[bakadayo]

I imagine GM has to jump through more regulations and safety tests than the Chinese counterparts. That and probly more red tape and such to go through.

[Lantec]

Originally Posted by Chromer

Oh, and because guaranteed someone will mention suspect Chinese safety engineering, here's a F3 (conventional powertrain) being crash-tested by Euro NCAP.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAskc...eature=related

It appears to do exactly what is supposed to happen...

Yeah, the crash test didn't look that bad. The main compartment didn't seem to suffer very much damage, the crumple zones worked as intended to.

[ZZcorollaVV_Ti]

Does anyone know what dealership these cars will be sold through?

[neg_matnik]

Originally Posted by adj789

60 miles? that's bad

I have a 8 mile commute to work (round trip). It would take a week before I had to plug the car in. Worst case, the gas engine would kick in and I would make it home unscathed .

[Mykl]

hahahaha... GM loses again, those poor bastards...

[Hondaslayer]

Originally Posted by bakadayo

I imagine GM has to jump through more regulations and safety tests than the Chinese counterparts. That and probly more red tape and such to go through.

NHTSA makes the rules and every automaker has to abide by them if they want to sell in the US.

[Calamity Jesus]

Originally Posted by neg_matnik

I have a 8 mile commute to work (round trip). It would take a week before I had to plug the car in. Worst case, the gas engine would kick in and I would make it home unscathed .

You could even plug it in every night and enjoy air conditioning, a loud stereo, the horn and windsheild wipers during your commute. Worst case, the gas engine would kick in and the 30 month old varnished gas in the tank would clog up the whole system.