BYD wins order for electric buses in Los Angeles area
BYD Co., the Chinese automaker part-owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., projected it will sell as many as 200 electric buses in the U.S. this year after securing its biggest order from a mass-transit operator.
The company won the contract in the U.S. from the Long Beach Transit Authority, which serves portions of the Los Angeles area, BYD Senior Vice President Stella Li said in a telephone interview.
The authority's board approved the initial purchase of 10 electric buses, each costing about $800,000 (5 million yuan), with options for its partner agencies to buy as many as 50 more, Li said.
"Today's order is a fundamental game changer for the industry," Li said. "We are entering a harvesting stage in the U.S. and I have high expectation for this market."
The Long Beach deal marks BYD's biggest order for electric buses outside its home market since the Shenzhen company opened a bus factory in California a year ago to push into the U.S., Canadian and Latin American markets. The company has sold more than 5,000 of the electric buses globally, with 50 buses operating in the United States.
BYD aims to sell 15,000 electric cars to taxi fleets and 6,000 electric buses this year, Hou Yan, the company's head of sales, told reporters last week at the Shanghai auto show.
The company also plans to start taking orders for electric trucks from overseas buyers in the second half of the year and begin deliveries in 2016, with the U.S. one of the likely first destinations, Li said. The plan is to manufacture the trucks in the U.S. after initially exporting them from China, she said.
In the first quarter, BYD's net income rose to 120.9 million yuan ($19.4 million) from 12 million yuan a year earlier.
The authority's board approved the initial purchase of 10 electric buses, each costing about $800,000 (5 million yuan), with options for its partner agencies to buy as many as 50 more, Li said.
"Today's order is a fundamental game changer for the industry," Li said. "We are entering a harvesting stage in the U.S. and I have high expectation for this market."
The Long Beach deal marks BYD's biggest order for electric buses outside its home market since the Shenzhen company opened a bus factory in California a year ago to push into the U.S., Canadian and Latin American markets. The company has sold more than 5,000 of the electric buses globally, with 50 buses operating in the United States.
BYD aims to sell 15,000 electric cars to taxi fleets and 6,000 electric buses this year, Hou Yan, the company's head of sales, told reporters last week at the Shanghai auto show.
The company also plans to start taking orders for electric trucks from overseas buyers in the second half of the year and begin deliveries in 2016, with the U.S. one of the likely first destinations, Li said. The plan is to manufacture the trucks in the U.S. after initially exporting them from China, she said.
In the first quarter, BYD's net income rose to 120.9 million yuan ($19.4 million) from 12 million yuan a year earlier.
