Will China's BYD win electric car race?
FILE PHOTO BY DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR
Engineer and BYD founder Wang Chuanfu, leaning on E6 crossover, introduced the battery-powered car at Detroit last winter. It’s due on the roads of China late this year. Performance claims remain unverifiable, says Peter Gorrie
By the end of this year, it says, it will be selling its battery-powered E6 five-seat crossover in China. By mid-2010, it says, the car will hit the United States.
The E6 is just one of many entrants. Over the next weeks, I'll shed as much light as I can on as many as possible. Since all remain under development, and make confusing – and as yet unverifiable – claims, these reports will mainly introduce the participants and their distinguishing features.
Engineer and entrepreneur Wang Chuanfu launched BYD in 1995 as a battery maker. Six years later, entrusting assembly to low-paid workers instead of expensive machines, it ranked among the world's largest manufacturers of cellphone rechargeables.
It entered the car industry in 2003, buying a failed government-owned business. A year ago, its gasoline-powered F3 became China's top-selling sedan. Last December, it launched a plug-in hybrid, the F3DM, beating GM's Volt to market by at least 18 months.
That history inspires comparisons with now-mighty Toyota when it was an aggressive upstart more than three decades ago.
BYD's main strength, it says, is its battery, which, while containing some lithium, employs iron phosphate in its positive pole. Others use one of several alternative materials.
Iron confers a cost advantage since it's abundant and relatively cheap, says company spokesperson Paul Lin. As a bonus, the electrolyte – the liquid through which electricity travels between positive and negative poles – is non-toxic.
Lin also claims a safety advantage: Iron-based chemistry is slower than other chemistries to overheat and go destructively "poof" when the battery is in a fire, gets punctured, overcharges or experiences a short circuit.
The trade-off is less energy capacity. Peter Roth, a battery expert at the Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, says the reduction is about 20 per cent, but it can be overcome by adding more cells.
BYD might be overstating its technological advantage. Rival battery makers, including the well-financed, New York-based A123, are developing iron chemistry.
China also has a poor reputation for quality and safety. "We've always had concerns about Chinese-built systems," Roth says. "Their track record isn't good." In any case, he adds, "you have to take everything they (battery makers) tell you with a grain of salt."
To buttress its image, BYD says its current army of 120,000 workers includes 10,000 engineers, recently described by Wang as "top of the top." Volkswagen is negotiating for its technology.
The E6 exceeds North American standards, Lin insists. But that's just a claim until put to the test. So are performance estimates.
Lin says the car goes 330 kilometres between charges under "real world" driving conditions, including urban and highway trips, and heating and air-conditioning loads. Top speed is 160 km/h; 0-to-100 km/h in less than 10 seconds. Plug-in time is nine hours for a full charge at a regular outlet; 15 minutes for 50 per cent with a quick charger.
Less than three months before sales are to start, the E6 continues to be tested and tweaked.
Still, BYD has advanced its North American debut from 2011 to next year, thanks in part to a $230 million (all figures U.S.) investment by Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. Buffett will also help BYD to establish U.S. distribution networks, Lin says.
The price, including battery: about $40,000, minus government subsidies. The first few hundred cars will go to government agencies, fleets and VIPs.
BYD faces stiff competition at home and skepticism abroad. Aggressive marketing has placed its name at the front of the pack. We'll know soon whether it can stay there.
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