Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD Auto Company Ltd is to set up a new North American headquarters in California, it announced on Friday April 30. The company's HQ in Los Angeles is expected to initially create up to 150 jobs.
BYD began selling one of the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicles, the BYD F3DM, in 2008. It is introducing an electric car, the E6, in 2010 to the City of Shenzhen, China.
The company originally started out in 1995 as a rechargeable battery manufacturer, becoming a dominant player in the mobile phone battery market. It listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2002, the same year it entered the auto market with the acquisition of Chinese car manufacturer Tsinchuan Automobile Co Ltd.
BYD currently builds around 350,000 of its plug-in hybrid sedan vehicles, the F3DM, each year. The model is slated to go on sale in the US during 2011. The vehicle has a 62-mile all-electric range assuming urban driving conditions. (Source: James Cartledge , brighterenergy.org, , May 3, 2010).