BYD E6 Pure Electric to launch in August!
BYD’s pure electric MPV, which is also China’s first mass produced pure electric car, is set to go on sale in August this year. The BYD E6 is currently on test with a Shenzhen Taxi Company in Shenzen city where they are currently pounding the streets of Shenzhen pulling customers from A to B and sharing data with BYD prior to their August 2010 launch.
The final sales price has not yet been determined, however the Chinese automotive press are estimating around 300,000RMB.
The E6 uses BYD’s own ET-POWER iron based lithium batteries, which are reportedly safer than other batteries that are currently available, and can also be charged from a regular 220 volt power supply, but with a 3C quick charging facility it can reach 80% full within 15 minutes and will go for 300km on a single charge, making it one of the furthest traveling electric cars available today. The E6 was not built for sports, with it taking 10 seconds to hit 100kph, and can hit 160kph on the open road, however one must be wise to remember that the E6 is a seriously heavy car. Despite the high price of the car, it will probably pay for itself over its lifetime with prices to fill up the E6 expected to be a third cheaper than gasoline if charged up at peak time.
Pricing for the E6 looks to be quite high at 300,000rmb ($43,000USD), but with government subsidies that will give buyers a rebate of upto 60,000rmb ($8,000USD) for each buyer, even with such subsidies being made available the E6 is still expensive, but as with all new technology it will trickle down to a reasonable price over time.
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When we first heard about the e6, the quoted range on a full charge of 400km was startling. But then it dropped to 330, then to 322, and now Xinhua quotes Mr. Wang at 300km.
I’ve been critical of GM for making too much hullabaloo of the long overdue Volt, but I must say that it’s been good at holding to a sober range figure of 64km.
Yes, I know that we’re talking apples and oranges here but nonetheless claims to range need to be accurate.
BYD, and Chinese battery makers in general, is all hype and no substance. A quick read on following article illustrates this.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/a-survival-strategy-for-battery-start-ups/
In spite of Warren Buffet hype, the battery industry insiders don’t think Chinese have what it takes to succeed in EV battery, putting Chinese batteries 10 years behind Japanese and Koreans in battery technology.
A Japanese battery company executive stated a similar thing; that EV battery war is a war to be fought between them(Japanese) and Koreans; Americans and Chinese are non-factors in this race.
Such low opinions on Chinese battery and EV outside of China may stun Chinese readers, but two separate test drive of E6 by western auto executives confirm that BYD E6 is not something that could be sold in the US.
IHC, which insiders are you referring to?
That article says nothing about BYD and Warren Buffet. The only comments regarding Chinese Battery manufacturers are an American company “Boston Power” saying the Chinese are 10 years behind but that seems to be fine for them because their production bases are in China (and Taiwan if you want to nitpick).
Boston Power is 5 years old (BYD is 15) and has never produced batteries outside of Asia. They produce batteries for some HP and Asus laptops and not much else. How would they know what is happening down the road at BYD (Boston Power have a factory in Shenzhen).
The start of a paragraph said the Chinese may help and following paragraph said the Chinese had no qualms about asking for help to get ahead citing Legend as an example….. Are we to assume that Boston Power are blowing their own horn for a bit of publicity??
LG was given the contract for GMs EV over a year ago for a variety of reasons, not really any new news there. Not even China related unless LG get their Batteries made in China.
A123′s cells are not prismatic which probably lost them the GM contract but if you ask people who have used them many will say they are indestructible and can take a beating.
Do you have a link or name to the Japanese battery executive you mentioned? Also which western auto execs are you referring too? If I was an exec for brand A I wouldn’t credit brand BYD and say “wow, it’s good. They will sell a ton of these”… Unless I was a Daimler exec with a vested interest of course
For the record, I think Wang Chuanfu is a bit of a snake oil salesman myself but that opinion may change with time if BYD back up their claims which is always possible (keeping an open mind).
Link of interest from Greentech
The last line of the title and first of the article pretty much explains where this companies production loyalties lay
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/boston-power-gets-55m-more-to-produce-lithium-ion-batteries-5520/
Boston Power have a website too for those folks interested.
http://www.boston-power.com/
@ woxihuanpijiu
> IHC, which insiders are you referring to?
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/10/27/is-byd%E2%80%99s-electric-car-ready-for-prime-time/
“The tech chief of a global auto maker who recently drove BYD’s all-electric battery car, the e6, told The Wall Street Journal that he was “truly astonished that they plan to sell such a half-baked car” in China later this year and in the U.S. next year.
The ride was “rough,” which indicates a problem with the car’s computer control technology, and its handling was “squishy,” the executive said.”
http://industry.bnet.com/auto/10004948/a-battery-car-insider-offers-negative-prospects/
“Anderman recently visited China’s ambitious BYD (which seeks to be the world’s largest automaker, and has a Warren Buffett investment to give it credibility). He took a look at the company’s E6, which is a battery car allegedly headed for the U.S. market. “This is not a car U.S. consumers would buy,” he said. He also encountered the company’s F3DM, the first plug-in hybrid on the world market, and found that noisy and not up to western standards.”
BYD E6 is terrible, yet BYD doesn’t seem to understand that it is terrible. This is what I am talking about; Chinese makers don’t understand that their products are terrible in quality.
> Do you have a link or name to the Japanese battery executive you mentioned?
It was from a Japanese news source. Nonetheless, it is true like my BYD E6 claims like I have shown above.
The first link had no mention of which auto exec so is as useful as used toilet paper. Posters also commented about that omission as well….. The article was from Oct 09 so not really an up to date source.
The second link was more interesting but nothing else on BYD other than what you posted. The comments about the F3DM are nothing new and were discussed within the Chinese motoring media and Anderman didn’t say WHY US consumers would not buy the E6. Anderman himself seems skeptical of every new EV on the market…. Maybe that skepticism keeps his company in business.
A link to the Japanese source you mentioned would be fine… unless its just another baseless comment as usual.
Noone should really call the E6 terrible yet….. unless you are a taxi driver in Shenzhen who has been involved with the testing of it…… hmm, might go to Shenzhen in the weekend and see if I can find one to take a ride in, can’t be any worse than a Santana.
@ woxihuanpijiu
> The first link had no mention of which auto exec so is as useful as used toilet paper.
That was to protect the executive’s identity. That’s a standard procedure in journalism. What matters is that WSJ reported it.
> The article was from Oct 09 so not really an up to date source.
The second one is pretty recent but the impression is the same.
> nothing else on BYD other than what you posted.
Well, he said E6 wasn’t something that could be sold in the US.
> Anderman didn’t say WHY US consumers would not buy the E6.
What else but poor quality?
> A link to the Japanese source you mentioned would be fine… unless its just another baseless comment as usual.
I don’t have time to search for it, so you will have to take my words for it.
Ok, so your argument is….
1, A comment from one of the thousands of auto execs around the world who was unnamed so impossible to prove it was actually said at all. Maybe it was the head of sanitation.
2, An article about a gentleman whose company is in business solely to assist other companies develop battery tech and visited BYD for reasons that were not mentioned.
Maybe he knocked on the door and asked to see what they were making. He does seem like he had a good time going by the look of photos on his website (including one with an F3DM).
He was VERY critical on the Nissan Leaf and a bit less on the Volt, much more so than the E6 but you failed to mention that. You are assuming its poor quality, maybe he just didn’t like the way the car felt when he sat in it. Remember it’s still a Chinese car first, by the time it gets to the US or elsewhere it will have had adjustments for the local market in the same way Japanese cars do. SAIC have shown that they were not about to pass Roewe/MG onto the British public and BYD would surely be looking closely at that. The E6 needs to prove itself in it’s home market first when it is finally released.
3, An unknown Japanese source that you can’t back up so is hardly worth a mention.
Your comment is a joke, a funny one too. Has no weight what-so-ever.
Ed,
Comments like this add nothing to the discussion at hand here, please bring something to the discussion if you wish to be taken seriously. We know you love Chinese cars, and pretty much anything Chinese, and will vigorously defend it, but please at least bring some hearty debate instead of one sentence attacks.
My argument is that IHC always picks out one or two negative reviews on Chinese cars, and one of the few positive ones on Korean cars, so what is the point really? I can find you plenty of people who think the opposite way, so picking out one bad apple or one good orange in a fruit garden means nothing. Everybody has their own opinions, you should not judge something based on others’ views alone.
Saying that the BYD E6 is terrible and poor in quality based on 2 reviews is a joke, period.
@ Ed
> IHC always picks out one or two negative reviews on Chinese cars
There hasn’t been a lot of English language impression of BYD E6 in western press. Both of which are negative.
> one of the few positive ones on Korean cars
Korean cars nowadays are getting excellent reviews and are winning comparison tests in the US, because of drastic quality improvements.
> I can find you plenty of people who think the opposite way,
In China of course.
Outside of China who is not ethnic Chinese,that would be a hard task.
> Saying that the BYD E6 is terrible and poor in quality based on 2 reviews is a joke, period.
Instead of complaining about bad first impressions, you should wonder why E6 is getting bad first impressions in the US when it is supposed to be a fine car in the eyes of Chinese consumers.
I keep telling here about the difference in expected quality of goods in the eyes of Chinese consumers vs Western consumers. What is good enough for Chinese consumers is not acceptable to western consumers.
Chinese companies need to stop being China-centric and become western-centric in design process if they were to become competitive in western markets. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen because China is the biggest auto market in the world, similar to American automakers who stayed in the comfort of their own domestic market instead of venturing overseas.
At the moment, the only Chinese automaker that could become a global player in 20 years is SAIC, which is attempting to design marketable cars in EU. Geely in my eyes is stretching too thin beyond its resources, and could end up being bankrupt if their Volvo takeover fails.
Chery? Great Wall? BYD? Nope.
“There hasn’t been a lot of English language impression of BYD E6 in western press. Both of which are negative.”
Well, that sure is saying a lot, and I’m 100% sure it means the E6 is a terrible car.
“In China of course.
Outside of China who is not ethnic Chinese,that would be a hard task.”
Actually, you want some English sites? Negative views on them are even easier to find than on Chinese ones. Do you seriously think that negative views on Korean vehicles all come from China?
“Chinese companies need to stop being China-centric and become western-centric in design process if they were to become competitive in western markets.”
Design is subjective, and there is nothing wrong with a few Chinese elements in a car design. That is not the key point. How it looks is what matters.
“Instead of complaining about bad first impressions, you should wonder why E6 is getting bad first impressions in the US when it is supposed to be a fine car in the eyes of Chinese consumers.”
a.) I’m not complaining.
b.)As I’ve said before, 2 bad reviews barely have any weight.
c.) First impressions can ALWAYS change.
d.)If the reviews came from executives, then what kind of cars do you think they own? Kias? I didn’t think so. Of course the E6 will seem tame when compared to a BWM or a Mercedes. But BYD didn’t bring the E6 to America to show off their car, handling, or styling. BYD brought it here because of their technology, an area which they are superior in.
If we are going to keep talking about proof to back up statements we should see some proof of how the technology BYD has is so superior. They are testing it now so obviously it isn’t even finished. Why don’t wait and see if it even works before we start claiming how great it is. Yeah they have put out some press releases saying it is great but every company does that for some attention. Even ones selling complete junk. So why don’t we all just wait and see what it really is.
So why don’t we wait before crazily bashing it and saying that it’s a terrible car? I can wait for a couple of months to see if BYD’s claims are true or not. But can IHC?
I agree with Head Honcho. Wait until its released and tested properly. BYD have been making claims for a while now, let’s see them back it up.
I can’t wait until the E6 comes out. I know the US automakers are still greatly influenced by the oil companies to keep miles down on cars. I think by BYD bringing a full electric longer range car to the US will finally either prompt the American Auto Companies to step up and bring out there technology and compete with the E6 or not listen to the public and fail like the did in past years. When people start to understand that there really is alternatives to gasoline and see all the benefits there are to electric then we will take the power out of the hands of the oil companies and put it in the hands of the consumers. Sorry to be so hard on the US auto companies but “Really” “Really” it has taken this long to come up with the Volt, the Prius has only been out for how long with incredible success.
Also, I’d like to thank the oil companies for suppressing technology, getting in bed with the car companies and paying off our politicians and my favorite being the biggest contributor to pollution and global warming just so they can sell more gas.
Kent S.
Launch in August 2010 ! Where is the e6 now ?
May be BYD is going to promote the Mercedes B-Class EV instead and asking for 500,000rmb each.
This is like my fourth time stopping by your site. I always love the content and the way you write. Very smooth and instructive at the same time .