BYD aims to sell hybrid cars overseas

China’s BYD Co. plans to sell its plug-in hybrid cars, the country’s first homegrown electric vehicle, in European and U.S. markets in 2011, BYD Chairman Wang Chuan Fu said. The firm recently launched the F3DM, which has a small gasoline engine as a back-up and is available in 14 Chinese cities at 149,800 yuan (US$21,881) per unit. The company aims to sell to corporate buyers initially, eventually expanding sales to the mass market in the second half of 2009. BYD is in talks with state power grid operators on setting up rechargeable facilities, but the cars currently have to be charged at home, Wang said. (December 15, 2008)