Word: auto
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...That said, there are many auto-industry executives who maintain that the hype has gotten well ahead of reality. There is no infrastructure, in the form of battery-charging stations, to support pure electric models. Electric cars now coming to market are also expensive, costing more than $20,000 even with the subsidy, a stiff price in a country where the annual average income is less than $10,000. That's part of the reason that BYD, since introducing a hybrid electric in December, has sold just 80 of them. CEO Wang Chuanfu expects that BYD will lower the price...
Like drowning men grasping the only piece of buoyant driftwood in sight, top executives from the world's beleaguered auto industry arrived in Shanghai this week for the city's 2009 auto show, unveiling their newest brands in the only car market in the world that continues to grow. Some of the show's stars are predictable, drawing crowds of reporters and photographers on Monday, media day: a stunning new Lexus convertible, the reborn Chevy Camaro from General Motors (Chinese journalists took turns lining up to be photographed in front of it) and the worldwide debut of Porsche...
...host of minor ones are exhibiting this week not just hybrids, but also pure battery-powered vehicles. No fewer than eight electric cars in various stages of development were put on display by Chinese companies. The reason is straightforward enough: China is the world's fastest-growing auto market. So far this year, it is also the world's biggest auto market, with sales through the first quarter running at an annualized rate of 11 million units, compared with 10 million in the U.S. That kind of scale is why some executives believe that China could be the country...
...company with little history in the auto industry, viewed as potential leader of that shift? One answer is that last September, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, paid $230 million to buy a 9.8% stake in BYD. At a press conference at the time, David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, the Berkshire Hathaway-owned company that made the investment, said he believed that BYD's technology was a "potential game changer if we're serious about reducing carbon-dioxide emissions." BYD has nearly 11,000 engineers and technicians working on battery technology at the company...
...industry's push toward electric cars. Large fleet owners - in China, that's mainly regional governments and taxi companies - now get subsidies worth up to $8,800 per vehicle if they buy electric. Beijing has also announced that it will spend $1.5 billion in grants to help its auto industry innovate. Because most Chinese car owners don't travel long distances, but rather commute in smoggy, traffic-clogged cities, a switch to plug-in electric vehicles is more plausible in China than in other countries...