BYD plans compact EV sales to individual consumers
BYD Co. plans to start selling its electric car in late October to residents in the south China city of Shenzhen, where it is headquartered.
According to the company, it will mark the first time that BYD has made the e6 compact electric car available for sale to individual customers.
BYD claims the e6's lithium-ion batteries give the vehicle a range of 240 to 300 km on one charge.
The e6 costs 299,800 yuan ($46,991). But sales subsidies from the central government and Shenzhen's reduce the car's price to 179,800 yuan.
To date, BYD has sold a little more than 50 e6 cars, all to one customer -- a local public transport company in Shenzhen, to be used as taxi cabs.
The Chinese automaker, backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, also says it will bring the e6 to the United States in the first half of 2012.
In the first eight months of this year, BYD sold 259,915 vehicles. Only four of them were e6 EVs; the rest were gasoline-powered, according to J.D. Power.
