BYD’s CEO and one of China’s richest men, in a recent interview with China’s Securities Report put forth his belief that BYD are in the progress of catching their second breath in the Chinese market owing to their improved technology, quality and green technology.

At the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show BYD are expected to launch a new generation of green technology with some key changes, firstly BYD’s own iron based batteries are completely lead free and secondly BYD have been able to increase the voltage from 12 volts to 48v which is more than enough to power the car and also the onboard electronics systems, thirdly BYD have improved the battery management system and also the regenerative braking systems and fourthly introduced a stop start system in some models which use electricity to take the car up to speed before turning on the gasoline engine, this system adds just 5000RMB to the car price and limits fuel use to one liter per 100km.

In 2012 BYD sold 450,000 vehicles, but low end models such as the F0 and F3 did not make up large numbers of sales as per expected, instead the L3, G3, G6, S6 and the new Su Rui (F3+). Wang Chuan Fu was quoted as saying that the BYD 2013 goal is to hit sales of 500,000 vehicles with the K9 electric bus reaching 3000 units and the E6 6000 units.