BYD Wants F6DM Plug-in Hybrid for Sale in Europe by 2010
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04. 3.08
There's a lot of excitement about what might be the first plug-in hybrid car on the market, BYD's F6DM. With an all-electric range of 62 miles (100 km) before the small gas engine kicks in, it could mean almost zero gasoline use for most people who drive less than that on a normal day, and the innovative ferrous batteries are said to be safe and recyclable.
Until now, all we knew was that BYD planned to release the F6DM on the Chinese market in the second half of 2008, with an all-electric F6E version coming in 2009, but no word on other markets. Now we learn that BYD president, Wang Chuanfu, wants to release the plug-in hybrid in Europe in 2010 because "savings on running costs [in Europe] are higher than in China because of high European fuel prices" and "the emphasis in Europe is on the environment. So we will first bring our hybrid models to Europe."
We expect the F6DM to be followed by the smaller F3DM plug-in hybrid. Hopefully, demand for plug-ins will keep increasing faster than even BYD expects and North-American introduction will follow quickly.
::BYD wants to sell hybrids in Europe by 2010
See also: ::How's The Google Plug-In Hybrid Fleet Doing?, ::OEMtek Turns Hybrids into Plug-in Hybrids, ::Plug-in Hybrids Might not Need New Power Plants, ::Miles XS500 Electric Car
I so want one of those. I almost never drive more than 60 miles in a day. Bye bye gasoline!
Europeans can afford this car. Chinese cannot.
However, soon economies of scale will kick in and the car will become affordable to all.
and yes, I want one too ...
Yes, another less dependencies for oil consumption
I so like this idea and I want one of these cars. We have to break the cycle of oil and the sooner the better.
My concern is the service network of BYD in Euro. For now they r selling normal cars and not that many in Europe. Number of recharging station could be challenge.