History has been made today: China launches first mass-produced hybrid car

[Wishcumstrue]

Just as US auto industry goes from bad to worst and even biting the dust, their counterparts in China are heading into the future (at Warp-speed!)..

 

Today, history has been made as Chinese car-maker,BYD, begins to sell China's first hybrid car and world's 1st mass-produced PHEV, the F3DM.

 

Note that the F3DM has beaten Toyota and GM in the plug-in area, as the two companies only plan to launch hybrid cars that can be charged from home in 2009 and 2010 respectively. IMHO, what we are seeing now is a rapid titanic shift of automotive industry in terms of innovation, competitveness and capital power.

 

Imagine, US's richest man investing and having a stake in a Chinese auto company that has never sell cars in US itself.

 

That, by itself, speaks volume about China's potent potential in the automotive industry.

 

 

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, started selling the world

[Friendstar]

"Wuling.... le wu air bag boh" -- quoted from movie

[Siyexcalibur]

This is not Wuling Brand, it is a BYD (Build Your Dreams)

[Newbie_driver]

dun underestimate the power of the chinese, they are a powerful lor. even the ang mo need to give respect...... dun play play

[Roh96]

Being first in market is not enough...it has to be good and reliable enough to convince ppl into buying it.

[Nlatio]

agree.... no point be the first but the ride die 1 week later and burst into flame.... .... the safety and quality of the product need to be there....

[Jacf]

the china market alone is already one huge pie! the future of automotive lies in 'clean and green' energy-powered cars!

[Kelpie]

This is not Wuling Brand, it is a BYD (Build Your Dreams)

Nicknamed BMW clone because of their logo.

 

Regards,

[Watwheels]

Hybrid cars are today's automobile trend. They are not a total solution to replacing fossil fuel powered car.

 

Even if the batts could be charge using the household 13A power point. The question is how long will it take to charge? Overnight of more dan 10hrs? Dan there's the weight of the car, two engines and the battery pack. How far will it travel on batteries alone when fully loaded with passengers and groceries? And there's reliability, we have yet to know that.

 

The only car which I think will make it in future...heck it's already running but only in California in America today. It's the Honda FCX Clarity. Compressed hydrogen as fuel, mixed with air(Oxygen) to produce electricity for the electric engine under the bonnet. Totally replacing petrol and diesel. Zero emissions. It's amazing Honda is already a step ahead.

[Nlatio]

Why didn't Sinkapore adopt leh???? Sound like a good way to go....... maybethe top have not come out with the Master plan on how to milk this cow???

[Sturtles]

Hmm... This seems like a regurgitation from topgear this week. Would be good if you can add the source of your opinion

[Kelpie]

dun underestimate the power of the chinese, they are a powerful lor. even the ang mo need to give respect...... dun play play

 

Got economic power talk louder lor . May be more Ang Mo will migrate to China and become citizens. Frankly, the posion milk case go to show their true business color. For now, no MIC car for me. Korean cars getting closer to what I would like see. MIC, still lags behind in term of performance. Actually quite strange hor, the basic bread and butter cars not perfect yet and now start to produce hybrid cars .

 

Regards,

[Perrier]

Very true.

 

No matter what you put into an inefficient engine, it will still be inefficient.

 

If a power station station can have a 70% efficiency, it will beat our modern engine until those test units with outstanding FE goes into production.

 

For me, electrical car is the way to go for the next century. better to control the emission of a few power stations than thousands of cars.

[Chengtl]

China need to improve on it's QA standard first. Being the fastest and first is not good enough for the consumer market. As of today, I will not relate China with quality. In fact, both are inversely related.

 

China is a powerful country today. It has some of the brightest people in the world - there is no doubt about that but their product quality still has lots of room for improvement. I would rather wait for Japanese or German technology to be ready.

[Chickensoup]

Any consumption figures to chew on?

[Ncp91]

The Israelis have thought of a solution for that.

 

They are trialling the use of replaceable battery packs that swap and go. You drive into a petrol/battery station and swap a pack of batteries, and off you go again. No need to wait 16 hours to use the car for 200 miles only.

 

Of course, the manufacturers need to make the battery packs modular and easily swappable, but I think that is possible.

[Kelpie]

I doubt the feasbility at this moment. Storage is a big issue and you really need to standardize the size of these battery packs if not how to fit into all types of car?

 

Not only that, improper storage and disposal of them may pose environmental issue too.

 

Regards,

[Xefera]

I think standardizing the battery packs should be no issue. The main problem is how widely accepted the standard is in order for it to be popular. Imagine driving to some ulu place and the petrol kiosk don't stock these batteries?