E6: China builds electric car dreams for the global market
- Source: Global Times
- [23:34 January 18 2010]
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The E6 on display.
The lithium iron phosphate battery car last for 400 km. Photos: CFP
By Andrew Tait
If there's one company that epitomises China's change and corporate growth, it's car manufacturer BYD, who hope their new car, the electric E6, will make its biggest impact so far.
BYD (Biyadi in Chinese but known as Build Your Dreams in English) started out as a rechargeable battery firm, eventually becoming China's leading manufacturer and one of the world's top four. After acquiring Tsinchuan Automobile, BYD launched eight different cars, now sold across China and exported to Africa, South America and the Middle East. The E6 could prove to be their defining moment, however.
"At present, because of international energy prices and changes in the global car market, the growing demand for clean energy cars is the future of the world's automotive development", a sales representative told Lifestyle. "While Europe and the United States are developing their own, because of the cost of production, and pricing issues, the only major developments are small low-end electric cars, or expensive high-end electric cars. In North America and Europe, as the world's largest auto markets, BYD's entry is only a matter of time."
From the technical specifications published by BYD, the new E6 does appear to have the potential to turn heads in the automotive world. Drawing on their specialized experience, BYD created a lithium iron phosphate battery as the core technology. They claim it can travel 400Km on a single charge, taking only 20 minutes to recharge to 80 percent capacity, with an hour and a half to get the full charge.
The company is already in discussions with the Chinese State Grid about the implementation of charging stations across the country. "At present, the State Grid Corporation has shown clear support in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and other large cities, to speed up construction of electric car charging stations," our source told us. "A few large cities will have the first charging stations upon completion, and they will become a "test drive " for setting up electric car charging base stations."
