Star power graces BYD event

Bill Gates (right) and Warren Buffet heap praise on a new BYD vehicle Wednesday in Beijing. Photo: Cong Mu

By Cong Mu

How many companies can boast VIPs like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates will show up at their promotional event? Probably very few. But that was the case Wednesday in Beijing for high-tech battery and carmaker BYD Co.

Seated in BYD's new M6 model, a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), Buffet, Gates, Charles Munger, vice chairman of Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway, and Wang Chuanfu, BYD's CEO, drove onto the stage during a promotional event for the vehicle.

The American business celebrities - the world's two richest men - were unreserved in voicing praise, calling the car "comfortable" and "amazing."

The Shenzhen-based company said in a press release Wednesday that "2010 is a brand-building year for BYD," and expects its first premium model, which is priced between 140,000 yuan ($20,817.84) and 240,000 yuan ($35,687.73), to boost its im-age. All other BYD cars are priced below 100,000 yuan ($14,869.89).

Buffet and Gates visited BYD's auto and battery factories in Shenzhen and Huizhou, Guangdong Province Tuesday. The local media is speculating that Buffet was in discussions with Wang about increasing his shareholding in the Hong Kong-listed company, but the billionaire investor said he would make "no statement" on the issue Wednesday.

"If we're buying shares, we won't announce it," Buffet added.

Berkshire Hathaway holds a 10 percent stakes in BYD.

BYD closed up HK$1.95 ($0.25), or 3.43 percent, at HK$58.85 ($7.59) on the news Wednesday.

The company also donated 1,000 sets of household energy-storage systems to the Tibetan government at the same event.

Gates said that his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is willing to partner with BYD on using advanced technology to benefit mankind.

But he did not say whether the fund was interested in purchasing BYD shares.

Buffet and Gates held a private philanthropy dinner for some of China's richest men last night in Beijing, but it was unclear whether Wang joined the dinner at the time this newspaper went to press.

Zeng Zhiling, a Shanghai-based JD Power analyst, said BYD's effort to enhance its brand value in the market still needs to be tested, though it is the right thing to do.

He said that the price of the M6 is much higher than its Chinese peers, such as JAC's Refine, whereas it is hard to say how much appeal the new MPV, which smacks of Toyota Previa-styling, will have to the high-end MPV buyers.