BYD plans 'aggressive' expansion

• Source: Global Times
• [08:25 March 16 2010]
• Comments

Chinese car and battery maker BYD, backed by US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, will lift capital expenditure by 58 percent this year, its chairman said, as it embarks on an aggressive expansion plan.

Enjoying speedy growth in China, which overtook the United States to become the world's largest car market last year, BYD is also looking at overseas markets.

The fast-growing carmaker plans to establish sales headquarters in the United States, paving the way for exports of its E6 electric car to the US market from the second half of 2010, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD and China's richest man, told reporters Monday.

BYD, which is about 10 percent owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, may also build a manufacturing facility in the United States in the future, Wang said.

"If there is a market, we will not exclude the chance to set up a production plant in the United States," he said.

A frontrunner among Chinese carmakers in clean energy cars, BYD is upbeat on growth for green vehicles and said it plans to sell about 1,000 dual model F3DM cars in Shenzhen to individual customers this year.

"Compared with our conventional cars, sales of green cars will remain small and will not make a profit contribution to the group this year," Wang said.

Wang said capital expenditure in 2010 would be about 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), as BYD sets up new manufacturing facilities to achieve its goal of doubling sales to 800,000 units this year.

In 2009, the company sold 450,000 vehicles, with capital expenditure of 6.3 billion yuan ($922.9 million).

Reuters