Mispricing

Solar firms hope for place in sun in Mideast

2012-01-24T11:38:00.002+08:00

While the solar energy industry in the West remains lackluster, Chinese solarenergy equipment manufacturers are actively looking for new markets for growth opportunities.

Some Chinese companies are planning to harness solar energy from deserts in the Middle Eastto help them step out of the shade.

More than 40 Chinese companies are attending the ongoing Fifth World Future Energy Summitin Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the most important event for the renewable energyindustry in the region. In 2008, two Chinese companies attended the event.

Chinese electric car and rechargeable battery maker BYD Co Ltd is attending the summit forthe first time this year.

"Abundant solar energy falls unused on the deserts of the Middle East, we hope to bring oursolar products and technologies to the market, even though it has yet to take shape," saidZhao Tong, general manager of BYD's solar division.

Awareness is growing in the oil-rich region of the importance of renewable energy to its future.

The UAE, for instance, is currently building a 6-sq km clean-technology cluster at Masdar city,near Abu Dhabi.

And Suntech Power Co, China's biggest solar panel maker, is supplying panels for a 10megawatt solar plant to power Masdar city, said Alan Frost, director of Masdar city.

Suntech's entry to the region is part of the company's overall plan to diversify its overseasmarkets, according to Wu Hongyan, marketing vice-president of Suntech's Asia-Pacific, MiddleEast and Africa region.

Suntech was among the earliest Chinese solar companies to tap into the region. It set up itsDubai office in 2010, and now has several projects in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

According to renewable energies consultancy Apricum, some Middle Eastern countries haverealized that alternative energy sources are needed to limit the domestic depletion of fossilfuels, and photovoltaic cells will have significant potential to cut fuel consumption in the future.

However, Wang from BYD admitted that the company will cautiously enter the market.

"As a company, besides market potential, we also have to consider the possible investmentreturns, which will partly rely on government support for the emerging industry," he said.

"Local government's policies are critical for an industry at its early stage, we'll see if morebenefits can come from government support for the sector," Zhao said.

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JD Power: Chinese Brands Narrow Gap In Quality

2012-01-24T11:36:00.000+08:00

JD Power recently released its vehicle reliability study for 2011. The study indicates that, from 2010, Chinese brands made huge strides in quality…narrowing the gap with foreign brands. Overall, Chinese brands narrowed the gap by a whopping 34% compared to their foreign rivals over the past year.

The vehicle reliability study measures eight categories of issues ranging from the power-train to exterior paint quality from 13-36 months of ownership. Figures are given in terms of Problems Per 100 Vehicles (PP100), thus a lower number indicates higher quality. China’s overall vehicle score came in at 218 PP100 in 2011, compared with 298 in 2010.

China’s own brands clocked in at 309 PP100, having decreased by 135 PP100 since the previous study.

BYD’s FO came in first place for the compact vehicle segment with the FAW Pentium B70 scoring highly in the premium midsize segment.

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BYD Becomes Apple Supplier, Shares Rise

2012-01-24T11:32:00.000+08:00

BYD (002594, 1211.HK) said it became one of the 156 suppliers of Apple Inc., triggering sharp gains in its share price and that of BYD Electronic International (0285.HK), reports sina.com.cn, citing a company filing.

BYD Electronic International mainly manufactures and sells handset components such as casings, modules and keypads.

The head of marketing at BYD, Lin Mi, said it supplied core mobile phone components to Apple.

Though Lin said BYD is expanding its business of supplying parts to major information technology companies, he did not disclose the quantity supplied to Apple.

According to Lin, the maker of rechargeable batteries and autos plans to introduce its electric car, e6, into the Hong Kong market in the second half of 2012.

BYD currently sells about 10,000 units of the e6 per month, up from the 7,500 units sold in September 2011, said Lin.

Shares of BYD Electronic International rose 7.56 percent to trade at HK$2.56 per share at 15:29, while BYD was up 7.43 percent to close at 25.3 yuan today.

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比亚迪：战略大调整后逐步步入正常轨迹

2011-11-21T21:05:00.000+08:00

去年进入调整期的比亚迪，目前已经逐步步入了正常的运行轨迹。

今年第三季度，比亚迪实现销量9.4万辆，同比增长9.1%。这意味着比亚迪开始显示出向上的发展势头。在汽车销量的同比增长的助推下，第三季度比亚迪的销售收入达到了118亿元，同比增长约10.95%；实现归属于母公司股东的净利润约为7700万元人民币，同比增长约 582.07%。

对于曾经喊出“2015年中国第一”的比亚迪，王传福表示，“2010、2011年的放缓，在比亚迪的历史上，不完全是一件坏事，让我们将这几点做好后，更能实现目标。”

新能源的全线挺进

比亚迪是一个善于做战略的企业，尤其是在新能源的战略布局上。这两年它在产业链的各个方面，基本都做了布局。除了人们熟知的电动车之外，比亚迪还涉及到了太阳能和储存电站，三大领域并成为比亚迪的三大梦想。

王传福表示，在其他的企业里，产品是为开发服务的，而在比亚迪，产品是为战略服务的。“以技术作为支撑，才可以奠定未来，我看得远一点。”

王传福认为，技术是为产品服务的，同时优先为战略服务。

在人们最为熟知的电动车领域，比亚迪开始推行公交优先的策略。在公交电动化上，比亚迪采取了K9加E6的组合，也就是公交电动大巴加电动出租车。

王传福表示，中国现在是120万辆出租车，50万辆公共交通大巴，还不包括长途大巴。按照深圳计算，公交系统的耗油量占到深圳总油量的25%到30%，120万辆的出租车加上50万辆大巴，占总车辆的比例是1%，耗油量和排污量却达到了25%到30%，作为有责任的企业家，如果这一块先搞成电动化，就将大头解决掉了，石油安全解决掉了，城市的污染也迎刃而解。

2010年5月17日，比亚迪e6纯电动出租车首批车辆交付运营。2011年8月始，比亚迪陆续向深圳大运会交付300辆e6，其中50辆大运会服务车，会后全部投入公共交通领域。大运会后，200辆K9也已陆续投入深圳公交系统正式运营。

截至目前，先后在深圳投入公交运营的纯电动e6出租版，累计总行驶里程超过600万公里，单车最高里程超过15万公里，相当于普通私家车6年的行驶里程。

10月26日e6先行者[综述图片论坛]上市销售。王传福表示，这证明比亚迪的产业链起来了，“明年还有2000辆大巴，明年和后年是新能源汽车几十亿的销售额，资本市场很愿意看到这样的情况，新能源汽车可以达到几十亿，而不是之前的几亿。”

重心从产能到品质

目前，比亚迪汽车的重心开始由产能转移到了品质上。王传福认为，过去成长得太快，过去强调了底盘的技术，发动机的技术，安全的技术，忽略了老百姓最关心的小问题。现在将国际制造的经验，将IT制造的品质管理调到汽车方面，将汽车的整个品质做好。

比亚迪在国际代工的过程中，本来就是做国际品质的企业，在国际代工产业链中扮演着重要的角色，占有重要的一席之地。王传福认为，比亚迪的品质体系已经受到他们的磨炼，或者是他们的训练。

王传福表示，未来比亚迪汽车将坚持品质与合资品牌一样，动力总成与国际同步，领先电子化。

为了品质的提升，比亚迪收购了日本荻原模具的馆林工厂，王传福表示，收购的目的很简单，不看重设备和产能，主要是因为有日本的技术和工程师，接近一半的工程师放到国内的工厂。通过这种给工人请老师的方式，学习日本的精益生产，快速地提高品质。

他表示，今年年底所有的车，包括F3(乘用车)的品质要达到合资品牌的要求，内部的IQS(全称是Incident Qualification System，意即集成质量系统)控制要小于10%，现在S6(乘用车)做到了，F0(乘用车)做到了，今年要将F3做到。

在品质提升的过程中，比亚迪在坚持垂直整合的同时，加大了零部件的外购。比如雨刷、制动系统等开始和博世合作。相关新闻比亚迪电动车E6成功进入汽车租赁领域比亚迪深圳推电动车e6 在家即可完成充电传统车业务陷减速危机比亚迪脱困再三年比亚迪：淬炼进行时配送充电柜店内实拍比亚迪纯电动e6广州车展2012款比亚迪G3[综述图片论坛]的“芯”智能显高端比亚迪G6[综述图片论坛]将亮相广州车展比亚迪G6携TID技术参加今年广州车展王传福万字演讲“揭疤”比亚迪比亚迪押宝电动车作秀还是实干文章标签:比亚迪比亚迪汽车比亚迪F3[综述图片论坛] 比亚迪F3DM[综述图片论坛] 比亚迪f3价格比亚迪汽车公司比亚迪汽车报价

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Charlie Munger on Berkshire's BYD Investment

2011-11-05T21:12:00.002+08:00

LED Makers Climb as China Plans to Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs

2011-11-05T21:02:00.000+08:00

A Chinese plan to phase out incandescent light bulbs is boosting companies that make energy- efficient replacements.

China will ban sales of incandescent bulbs that use 100 watts or more of power starting Oct. 1, 2012, the official Xinhua News Agencyreported today. The ban will be expanded to cover any bulbs that use more than 60 watts in 2014 and to 15 watts in 2016.

Cree Inc. (CREE), a maker of light-emitting diodes, which provide light using less energy than incandescent bulbs, gained 9.7 percent to $30.57 in New York, the biggest jump since Aug. 10. LED-maker SemiLEDs Corp. surged 31 percent and Veeco Instruments Inc. (VECO), a maker of equipment for LED manufacturing, climbed 10 percent, Bloomberg data shows.

Cree, based in Durham, North Carolina, made 36 percent of its sales in Hong Kong and China last year, according to Bloomberg data. Its market share in the world’s most populous country may be as high as 80 percent, according to Piper Jaffray & Co.

“Cree’s limited competition in China is due to most domestic manufacturers remaining at least two to three years behind Cree on technology,” Ahmar Zaman, an analyst at Piper Jaffray inNew York, wrote in a research note today. “This positions Cree well to benefit from an uptick in general lighting demand.”

In addition to the sales ban, China may offer subsidies to encourage purchases of LED lighting, Zaman wrote.

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BYD to build an EV plant in Argentina

2011-11-04T22:13:00.002+08:00

BYD Chinese car maker, which also makes batteries, phone handsets and energy storage equipment makes another important step today in conquering world’s electronic vehicle market.

The company announced today the signing of an agreement with the Argentinean government in order to produce electronic vehicles for domestic public transportation.

The Ministry of Economy and Production of Argentina stated that Argentina will be a platform for BYD’s exports in South America, Mexico and rest of the world. Besides this, the country’s lithium natural reserves may have played an important part in BYD’s decision.

Last week, BYD become the first Chinese auto maker with a local branch in North America as it set up its headquarters in New York. Here, the company signed an agreement regarding the manufacturing of e-buses and e-taxies in the United States.

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What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

2011-10-30T11:37:00.000+08:00

BETTER to be lucky than good, the adage goes.

And maybe that’s true — if you just want to be merely good, not much better than average. But what if you want to build or do something great? And what if you want to do so in today’s unstable and unpredictable world?

Recently, we completed a nine-year research study of some of the most extreme business successes of modern times. We examined entrepreneurs who built small enterprises into companies that outperformed their industries by a factor of 10 in highly turbulent environments. We call them 10Xers, for “10 times success.”

The very nature of this study — how some people thrive in uncertainty, lead in chaos, deal with a world full of big, disruptive forces that we cannot predict or control — led us to smack into the question, “Just what is the role of luck?”

Could it be that leaders’ skills account for the difference between just meeting their industry’s average performance (1X success) and doubling it (2X)? But that luck accounts for all the difference between 2X and 10X?

Maybe, or maybe not.

But how on Earth could we go about quantifying something as elusive as “luck”? The breakthrough came in seeing luck as an event, not as some indefinable aura. We defined a “luck event” as one that meets three tests. First, some significant aspect of the event occurs largely or entirely independent of the actions of the enterprise’s main actors. Second, the event has a potentially significant consequence — good or bad. And, third, it has some element of unpredictability.

We systematically found 230 significant luck events across the history of our study’s subjects. We considered good luck, bad luck, the timing of luck and the size of “luck spikes.” Adding up the evidence, we found that the 10X cases weren’t generally “luckier” than the comparison cases. (We compared the 10X companies with a control group of companies that failed to become great in the same extreme environments.)

The 10X cases and the control group both had luck, good and bad, in comparable amounts, so the evidence leads us to conclude that luck doesn’t cause 10X success. The crucial question is not, “Are you lucky?” but “Do you get a high return on luck?”

Return on luck: We call it ROL.

SO why did Bill Gates become a 10Xer, building a great software company in the personal computer revolution? Through one lens, you might see Mr. Gates as incredibly lucky. He just happened to have been born into an upper-middle-class American family that had the resources to send him to a private school. His family happened to enroll him at Lakeside School in Seattle, which had a Teletype connection to a computer upon which he could learn to program — something that was unusual for schools in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

He also just happened to have been born at the right time, coming of age as the advancement of microelectronics made the PC inevitable. Had he been born 10 years later, or even just five years later, he would have missed the moment.

Mr. Gates’s friend Paul Allen just happened to see a cover article in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, titled “World’s First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models.” It was about the Altair, designed by a small company in Albuquerque. Mr. Gates and Mr. Allen had the idea to convert the programming language Basic into a product that could be used on the Altair, which would put them in position to be the first to sell such a product for a personal computer. Mr. Gates went to college at Harvard, which just happened to have a PDP-10 computer upon which he could develop and test his ideas.

Wow, Bill Gates was really lucky, right?

Yes, he was. But luck is not why Bill Gates became a 10Xer. Consider these questions:

• Was Bill Gates the only person of his era who grew up in an upper middle-class American family?

• Was he the only person born in the mid-1950s who attended a secondary school with access to computing?

• Was he the only person who went to a college with computer resources in the mid-’70s? The only one who read the Popular Electronics article? The only one who knew how to program in Basic?

No, no, no, no and no.

Lakeside may have been one of the first schools to have a computer that students could use during those years, but it wasn’t the only such school.

Mr. Gates may have been a math and computer whiz kid at a top college that had computers in 1975, but he wasn’t the only math and computer whiz kid at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, M.I.T., Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, U.C.L.A., the University of Chicago, Georgia Tech, Cornell, Dartmouth, Southern Cal, Columbia, Northwestern, Penn, Michigan or any number of other top colleges with comparable or even better computer resources.

Mr. Gates wasn’t the only person who knew how to program in Basic; the language was developed a decade earlier by Dartmouth professors, and it was widely known by 1975, used in academics and industry. And what about all the master’s and Ph.D. students in electrical engineering and computer science who had even more computer expertise than Mr. Gates on the day the Popular Electronics article appeared? Any could have decided to abandon their studies and start a personal computer software company. And computer experts already working in industry and academia could have done the same.

But how many of them changed their life plans — and cut their sleep to near zero, essentially inhaling food so as not to let eating interfere with work — to throw themselves into writing Basic for the Altair? How many defied their parents, dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque to work with the Altair? How many had Basic for the Altair written, debugged and ready to ship before anyone else?

Thousands of people could have done the same thing that Mr. Gates did, at the same time. But they didn’t.

The difference between Mr. Gates and similarly advantaged people is not luck. Mr. Gates went further, taking a confluence of lucky circumstances and creating a huge return on his luck. And this is the important difference.

Luck, good and bad, happens to everyone, whether we like it or not. But when we look at the 10Xers, we see people like Mr. Gates who recognize luck and seize it, leaders who grab luck events and make much more of them.

This ability to achieve a high ROL at pivotal moments has a huge multiplicative effect for 10Xers. They zoom out to recognize when a luck event has happened and to consider whether they should let it disrupt their plans. Imagine if Mr. Gates had said to Paul Allen after seeing the Popular Electronics article: “Well, Paul, I’m kind of focused on my studies here at Harvard right now. Let’s wait a few years, and then I’ll be ready to start.”

When we examined less successful companies, we saw a generally poor overall return on luck. Some of the comparison cases had extraordinary sequences of good luck yet showed a spectacular ability to fritter that luck away. When the time came to execute on their good fortune, they stumbled. They didn’t fail for lack of good luck. They failed for lack of superb execution.

WHILE getting a high return on good luck is an essential skill for 10Xers, getting a high return on bad luck can be a truly defining moment. Consider the 10X case of Progressive Insurance.

On Nov. 8, 1988, Peter Lewis, the chief executive, received news that shocked the insurance industry. California voters had passed Proposition 103, a punitive attack on car insurance companies. Prop 103 required 20 percent price reductions and refunds to customers, plunging a huge auto insurance market into chaos. Progressive had significant exposure, with nearly a quarter of its entire business from that one state — bang! — severely damaged by a 51 percent vote on a single day.

Mr. Lewis zoomed out to ask, “What the heck is going on?” He placed a call to a former Princeton classmate, Ralph Nader. Mr. Nader had long been a consumer rights activist, at one point leading a sort of special forces unit nicknamed Nader’s Raiders, and he had championed Proposition 103. The message that Mr. Lewis heard: People hate you. Or, in other words, people simply hated dealing with insurance companies, so they revolted, screaming with their votes.

“People were saying, ‘We hate your guts. We’re going to kill you. And we don’t give a damn,’ ” Mr. Lewis said.

Chastened by what he had heard, he called his staff together and told everyone, “Our customers actually hate us.” He challenged his team to create a better company.

Mr. Lewis came to see Proposition 103 as a gift, and he used it to deepen the company’s core purpose and to reduce the economic cost and trauma caused by auto accidents. The company would create its “immediate response” claims service: No matter when you had an accident, Progressive would be available — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Claims adjusters would work from a fleet of vans and S.U.V.’s dispatched to policy holders’ homes or even directly to an accident scene.

By 1995, Progressive could note this achievement: in 80 percent of cases, its adjusters would have visited the customer, ready to issue a check within 24 hours of an accident.

In 1987, the year before Proposition 103, Progressive ranked No. 13 in the American private-passenger auto insurance market. By 2002, it had reached No. 4. Years later, Mr. Lewis called Proposition 103 “the best thing that ever happened to this company.”

Progressive and Mr. Lewis illustrate how 10Xers shine when clobbered by setbacks and misfortune, turning bad luck into good results. They use difficulty as a catalyst to deepen purpose, recommit to values, increase discipline, respond with creativity and heighten productive paranoia — translating fear into extensive preparation and calm, clearheaded action. Resilience, not luck, is the signature of greatness.

Nietzsche wrote, “What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” We all get bad luck. The question is how to use it to turn it into “one of the best things that ever happened,” to not let it become a psychological prison.

WE came across a remarkable moment at the very start of the history of Southwest Airlines, described by its first chief executive, Lamar Muse, in his book, “Southwest Passage.”

“The very first Sunday morning of Southwest’s life, we narrowly escaped a disaster,” Mr. Muse wrote. “During the takeoff run, the right thrust-reverser deployed. Only the captain’s instantaneous reaction allowed him to recover control and make a tight turn for an emergency landing on one engine.”

What if the jet had smashed into the ground in the first week of building the company? Would there even be a Southwest Airlines today? If we all have some combination of both heads (lucky flips) and tails (unlucky flips), and if the ratio of heads to tails tends to even out over time, we need to be skilled, strong, prepared and resilient to endure the bad luck long enough to eventually get good luck. The Southwest pilot had to be skilled and prepared before the thrust-reverser deployed.

There’s an interesting asymmetry between good and bad luck. A single stroke of good luck, no matter how big, cannot by itself make a great company. But a single stroke of extremely bad luck, or an extended sequence of bad-luck events that creates a catastrophic outcome, can terminate the quest.

The 10Xers exercise productive paranoia, combined with empirical creativity and fanatic discipline, to create huge margins of safety. If you stay in the game long enough, good luck tends to return, but if you get knocked out, you’ll never have the chance to be lucky again. Luck favors the persistent, but you can persist only if you survive.

After finishing our luck analysis for “Great by Choice,” we realized that getting a high ROL required a new mental muscle. There are smart decisions and wise decisions. And one form of wisdom is the ability to judge when to let luck disrupt our plans. Not all time in life is equal. The question is, when the unequal moment comes, do we recognize it, or just let it slip? But, just as important, do we have the fanatic, obsessive discipline to keep marching, to push the opportunity to the extreme, to make the most of the chances we’re given?

Getting a high ROL requires throwing yourself at the luck event with ferocious intensity, disrupting your life and not letting up. Bill Gates didn’t just get a lucky break and cash in his chips. He kept pushing, driving, working — and sustained that effort for more than two decades. That’s not luck — that’s return on luck.

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王传福：比亚迪电动汽车倍受关注，公交电动化策略优先

2011-10-23T11:31:00.000+08:00

记者：在电动汽车方面，电池技术还是比亚迪的核心技术。目前营业收入55%还是来自于传统收入，我们还是期待电动汽车的，但是现实情况跟预想是不同的，比亚迪在什么样的时间段会改变现状，电动汽车在什么样的时间会给公司带来实际的收益？

　　王传福：这个问题，资本市场和媒体都很关注，请大家给比亚迪一些耐心。电动汽车应该用革命这种词语形容，涉及到产能的问题。目前大家看到的投放量是大运会期间做的，我们进行了很多的调试。因为这种电池全球和全世界都没有的，我们摸索了一段时间。

　　2011年的下半年是比亚迪真正量产的元年，例如200台电动大巴，电池的容量相当于4000台尼桑，我们一台电动大巴的电池容量是尼桑的15—20倍，我说的是电池容量，在电池产业链上，铁电池是新的电池，所有的供应链都是新的，附件还是用锂电池，正极是不同的，结构也是不同的。我们在这些方面花了一些时间摸索和探索，今天看到的是完整的产业链的生产线。

我们在深圳还是比较低调的，例如大巴运营的时候，没有过多的宣传，出租车也简单的介绍，没有深度的宣传。但是国外很多的记者过来，我们是包车给他们体验，未来这些方面我们会深度的进行分析。

　　记者：电动汽车主要是针对公交系统吗，政府是否有影响。

　　王传福：电动车要交购置税10%，这是很厉害的。

　　记者：电动汽车是否有补贴的。

　　王传福：补贴政策是有的，E6B本来想在北京多卖一些，北京说不摇号，但是没有实施细则，有人说要等本地车出来，这些内容不要写上去，如果可以早一点出来的话，北京的朋友想买车的话，至少不用等号，也是一款环保的车。

　　记者：私家车充电怎么解决？

　　王传福：私家车解决充电就像买空调一样，单独的设置，充电后可以达到上百公里，电动车有很多的误区，实际上是错误的，私家车不依赖公共的充电桩，家里安装一个充电器就够了，人们往往以为电动车对公共充电桩的依赖等于燃油车对加油站的依赖，实际上是错误的。

　　例如每个家庭流出来的是油，你的车不需要加油的，电每家都有的，不像油一样，家里不可能有油，因此只能依赖。手机都是在家里充电的，一般不会再外面充电。一辈子也可能只有一次，用形象的比喻，公共充电桩就像车里的备胎，车如果没有了备胎，就会觉得很难受，万一坏了怎么办，实际上开了一辈子的车，也没有用过一次，这是心理作用。比亚迪的车，300公里的里程，上三环、四环也没有关系的，到朋友哪里吃饭喝酒也没有关系的，可以在晚上给车充电，而且电动车是预约充电，你7点回去后，可以设定在11点充电，早充就会贵，这是由软件来调整的，大家对电动车有很多的误区，大家认为换电池，手机可以更换，汽车也可以更换吗，实际上是错误的，首先手机的电流是几十毫安可以更换的，电动车的电流是几百安培，发电是电流的平方，这么大的热量涉及到很多安全的问题。如果更换电池的话，要很方便，就不能拧螺丝，如果追求方便就不能加螺丝，方便和紧是大的矛盾。

　　第二，车是运动的，家里安装电线和开关，拧上螺丝，房屋是不运动的，车是运动的，如果车一动的话，动也是一个矛盾，车一动就会影响到充电。

　　第三，要实现无尘，一个头发丝都会将某个地方搞脏，脏了就会电阻增加，如果换电池的话，不可能像工厂一样，车就在马路边上，例如北京风沙大，或者是插头上有头发就会导致很多的问题，因此有很多的矛盾，不能说完全不能解决，这是很难解决的，现阶段简单的用手机更换电池的方法比喻是误区，电动车有很多的误区，按照手机的方法是无法处理的。
记者：您对市场趋势性的判断，不仅仅局限于新能源汽车，可以谈谈太阳能汽车等等，您去年提到新能源汽车会在2015年迎来引爆点，现在是否有所改变。

　　王传福：原来说太阳能电在2015年有很大的变化，因为太阳能电价跟煤的电价接近。我们给南方电网引进了2万兆瓦，给国家电网也引进了2万兆瓦，目前国家处于出能试验的阶段，如果试验成功的话，就会大规模的推广。

　　电动汽车方面公交系统会先走，我认为上得最快的就是公交电动化，虽然出的晚，但是会上得快。私家车是环保和有社会责任的人，这些群体会先购买。这类的群体北京人很多，但是北京需要进一步等待政策。一般的城市会少一些，北京市场打开后，我们的市场就会很大。我们乐于看到公交电动化，有很多的社会责任和意识，包括国家的安全问题。社会意义远远大于经济意义，这是放到首位的，通过深圳大运会的运行后，我们认为公交会先行，实际上国家的政策就是指电动化，有的城市实施计划并不是很好，只是深圳完成的比较好。

　　我们认为公交电动化在未来三年会发生很大的改变，明年到深圳的话，如果深圳有2000台电动大巴的话，这就是一场公交系统的革命，明年来的时候，就会问，还要买燃油大巴吗，或者是燃油大巴什么时候消失，大家讨论的就是这一问题。

　　记者：电动车的概念，在国外接受的程度是怎样的，是否想过花大力气扩大海外的市场？

　　王传福：公交系统来说，美国是依赖私家车的城市，美国的纽约、洛杉矶、芝加哥、休斯敦四个城市大巴多一点。北京的出租车有五、六万台，大巴有二、三万台。

　　记者：美国人愿意用电动的汽车，是否可以在这些方面切入？

　　王传福：比亚迪是中国企业，虽然是巴菲特投资的企业。我们更愿意将公交电动化放到中国，在我们的战略中有个优先顺序，公交是第一，F3DM双模电动车在深圳也卖的，现在所有的电动都移到公交上，电池产能不够的情况下，首先保证公交。

　　记者：你们的策略是公交优先，本地优先吗？

　　王传福：公交优先，并不是本地优先，有的城市让我们投资，每个省和城市都投资的话，我们没有这么多的资金，这就是地方保护。

　　记者：电动车是中国政府旗帜鲜明的倡导的，但是国外不一定认可的，而且车到国外还需要认证，需要做大量的工作。

　　比亚迪中报的时候，净利润下滑了88%，但是我注意到报表内有一个现象，关键的原因在于摊销和折旧。报表中的净利润看起来不好看，但是现金流是正常的，也就是说明比亚迪在前期几年大规模的投入，在这一、二年或者是今年的报表中摊销费用加大。我们想知道的是，这两年是调整年度，您预测业绩的拐点会在什么时候呈现？

　　王传福：这都是明年的事情，我们二季度是很差的，大约11月29日会公布三季度的业绩和四季度的预告，到时你会看到。对于企业家而言是很坦率的，很羡慕你们的。家里人多，现在有18万名员工，虽然有一些梦想，又要现实。股东要满意，员工要涨工资，因此管理层要不断的努力，各方的利益尽量的做到。

　　比亚迪是技术型的企业，本来就是打技术牌的，我们叫做技术为王，创新为本，我本人也是学技术的，技术看得更深一点，在其他的企业产品为开发服务的，我们的产品是为战略服务的，我是以技术作为支撑，才可以奠定未来，我看得远一点。技术也是为产品服务的，同时优先为战略服务，地球是不堪负重的，作为有责任的企业家，要做一些事情，城市也是不堪负重的，要满足各方的利益，员工要求涨工资，股东要求股价上涨，我们要满足各方的梦想，如果要实现的话，人类就不会未始有、打仗和污染考虑，从技术的角度来说，并不是很难实现的，太阳能价格在2016年就掉下来，储能的技术已经有了，就是缺乏大规模的需求，有定单我们就可以做的，人类真正能够发展，就不会欠子孙后代的东西，现在是将孙子的东西用掉，这样下去的话，他们将来怎么办。

　　作为企业家来说，有梦想，也有压力。今年比亚迪很努力的工作。我们以前也犯了一些错误，压力大的时候，头脑更加的清晰，会做出正确的事情。2009年每天都是迷糊的，产能很大，产品卖的很好，当时很容易犯错误，头脑是发热的，有压力的时候，反而会冷静的思考。

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王传福：该犯的错都已犯过了 2013年将重新进入腾飞

2011-10-23T11:29:00.000+08:00

“2005年推出F3以后，连续5年的高速成长，特别是2010年达到了100万台，在网络扩张上犯了一些错误，过多地关注了网络的数量，忽略了网络的质量。其次，在一些小问题上，例如产品的小问题上，做得不够细。”面对记者，比亚迪（002594）董事长王传福一开始就解剖自己的“两个错误”，“我们准备从2011年到2013年花三年时间进行调整。”

　　近一年来，比亚迪似乎坏消息不断—经销商退网、销售高管离职、裁员风波、中报利润骤降88.6%，以及“气囊门”事件……但王传福依然信心满满，代工远未到行将末路，新能源汽车也绝非未成气候，“深圳正大力推动公交电动化，未来5年将更换1万辆公交大巴和1.3万辆出租车，我们已经拿下明年深圳2000辆电动大巴的订单，40亿元”。

　　“2010、2011年的放缓，在比亚迪的历史上，不完全是一件坏事，我们解决问题后，更能实现我们的目标，”王传福说，“2013年将重新进入腾飞”。

　　话语平静，但掷地有声。

　　三年调整

　　三年调整如何实施，管理、组织、人员和工厂如何调控，是否要进行大的变革？

　　王传福说，调整首先是网络，以前有1000多家经销商，现在是830多家，精减了很多，现在是只出不进，随着S6和G6产品陆续投放，他们的信心也非常足，摩拳擦掌希望和比亚迪一起奋斗。

　　其次，提升品质。“我们一定要将品质做到跟合资公司一样，这是不能妥协的，S6就是一个例子，在品质一样的情况下，价格只有合资品牌的一半，”王传福说，“现在老百姓还不了解我们的品质和品牌，没有关系，就慢慢试，比亚迪品质绝对不妥协，所有的小问题，例如雨刮（F3投诉率第一的是雨刮）和噪音等不能有半点差异，不行就换供应商。我们的目标很明确，今年年底所有车的品质要达到合资品牌的要求，内部IQS控制要小于10%，合资品牌这方面的数据也就9%左右，现在S6做到了，F0做到了，今年底F3也要做到。”

　　同时，动力总成上要与国际同步，如涡轮增压，比亚迪也要有。

　　此外，电子化方面要领先。“我们拥有各种十万多元级别汽车中无法看到的电子配置，例如数字电视、倒车影像和右前轮摄像头。我们在国内第一家使用感应的钥匙，例如放到钱包里面的一个芯片。还有云钥匙遥控和安全技术，经济型轿车安装夜视系统，所有的座椅和方向盘都做成GE，还有GPS、蓝牙、5.1声道的家庭环绕、6个安全气囊，整车设计是按照五星碰撞设计，我们的品质已经做到跟合资品牌同步。”

　　“有了这些条件，我们相信实现第一并不是一句口号，我们犯了一些错误，速度放缓一点，这样不是坏事。坦率讲，2009年我所主持的会议，99%的时间都是谈产能、产能、产能，因为2009年增长了162%，开会后留下2分钟谈一谈品质问题。事业部的总经理说，品质没有问题，不是都卖光了吗？真正有压力的时候，销售放缓的时候，才会真正花心思，真正动真格地改善噪音的问题、雨刮为什么刮不干净的问题，只有将这些问题真正重视起来，公司整体的规划和服务水平才能提高。”

　　“如果我们的品质跟德国车是一样的，跟韩国车是一样的话，价格是他们的一半，我们还有百分之十几的毛利，这就意味着什么？”王传福说，“我们该请的师傅已经请了，该学习的都学习了，该犯的错误都犯了，现在就要出真的东西了。”

　　对于公司事业部的调整，王传福说，现在比亚迪有18万名员工，汽车产业部有7.3万名，IT产业有11万多。7万多的员工是垂直整合的方式，销售部的人数是比较多的，目前正在精减，将原来的四个网络变成三个网络，我们的销售人员要控制在2500多人左右。

　　王传福表示，“比亚迪的产业很多，包括公交电动化、绿色公交事业部，还要给香港做巴士，这是新的事业部，还有诺基亚、华硕订单加大生产方面需要的人员，我们尽量内部调岗，到目前为止没有主动裁过一个人。但坦率地说，有一些做销售的人调到IT不太适应，不像销售那样每天很自由，有的人就会走了，我们也不会勉强挽留。”

E6五年无对手

　　14日上午，比亚迪首次将其视为绝密的“铁电池（磷酸铁锂）生产线”及检测中心，公开“暴露”在媒体记者的眼前。

　　比亚迪汽车销售有限公司总经理侯雁说，每块铁电池容量为200安士（日本生产的铁电池最大为50安士），无惧火烧，在即将上市的E6车型上，将安装96块铁电池，一次充电可行驶300公里。

　　“E6五年无对手。”王传福之所以敢于如此放言，也正是基于这款“自主知识产权铁电池”的底气。

　　王传福认为，中国发展汽车工业，除了走电动车道路，没有第二条路。中国如果一个家庭一部车就是4亿汽车，一年8亿吨成品油，相当于原油11吨，去年中国才进口二三亿吨石油，进口依存度已达55%，发展电动汽车对中国尤为重要。

　　耗油大户之一是公共交通，一辆私家车一天平均运行不到2小时，一辆出租车运行20小时，一辆公共巴士相当于30台-40台私家车的耗油量。按深圳计算，公交系统的耗油量占到深圳总油量的25%-30%。

　　比亚迪的战略选择是，将公交电动化放到首位。王传福称，深圳未来五年，要更换1万台公交大巴、1.3万台出租车，13日香港特首曾荫权在新的执政报告中说拨款1.5亿港元购买比亚迪电动大巴约30台。法兰克福订购的电动大巴明年三月交付，给米兰明年交货600台大巴。欧洲巴士的营运商到深圳一看有200台电动大巴、300台电动出租车在跑，一下子改变了他们很多的概念，回去后马上停掉了欧6项目、混合动力电动大巴项目，买了比亚迪400台电动大巴在赫尔辛基运行。

　　“10月26日，E6就要上市，这款车我们打造了9年，逐步改造，逐步优化，累计投入10亿元。在未来5年内，没有哪一款其他出租车可以满足电动化的，而E6可以满足一次充满电续航250公里，行李厢可安放三副高尔夫球杆，E6代表了未来发展的方向，作为出租车，E6在5年内没有竞争对手。”王传福称，公交电动化的市场蛋糕之大令人咋舌，50万台公交车，约1万亿元，1200万辆出租车，约1.32万亿元，比亚迪的电动车战略，就是K9（公交电动大巴）+E6（电动出租车）组合。

　　未来“秦”计划

　　比亚迪造车的思路主要有三步：通过逆向开发低成本推出新产品；通过垂直整合产业链获得产品在制造环节上的成本优势；通过市场销量的高速扩张实现规模化收益。但是这个模式已经带来了新车推出节奏较缓慢、市场诟病企业设计“山寨”等问题，但这一点很快将会改变，在调整期间，比亚迪连续推出数款新车。王传福表示，尽管制定了三年调整计划，但投入方面没有太大变化，否则就会青黄不接。

　　5月上市的S6是调整期内第一款车，如果说F3代表比亚迪2005年的水平，S6代表比亚迪现在造车的水平，丰富的电子化配置遥遥领先，有望带动比亚迪二次腾飞。E6先行者装载的是比亚迪云钥匙，比感应钥匙更方便，用苹果手机开车门。新款F3明年将在北京车展推出，钥匙遥控技术独具一格。

　　调控期内第二款车G6，说明比亚迪的品质达到了合资品牌的品质，动力跟世界同步，1.5L缸内直压和涡轮增压，使老外都惊讶。明年还会推出新F3和新F6，F3有遥控功能，F6采用悬视夜视系统。

　　王传福强调，明年9月份将推出一款车，叫做“秦”，这是比亚迪挑战合资品牌的一款车，F3DM是比亚迪2008年的技术，秦是比亚迪2011年的技术。0-100公里加速6秒，100公里油耗2L，还有很多新技术，云钥匙、遥控都是小意思。摄像头、座椅、方向盘都是GE的，人坐进去后，方向盘就下降，出来后，方向盘就上升，座椅也是电子化的，这是比亚迪I系统，有一个小的机器人（300024），门一开就有小人在仪表盘上运行，上面有很多的摄像头，而且跟你对话，不用动手，只用动嘴就可以了。可以通过苹果手机来遥控，如果将车借给朋友，也可以通过远程监控了解是谁在车上，这些项目是可以真正挑战合资品牌的，看了让人感觉恐怖，这是比亚迪2011年最新的技术。

　　王传福说，以前设计师经常搞一些特色的东西，他经常否定了，不敢冒险，但秦这个项目就是属于挑战型的，就是属于里程碑式的产品，造型就是异类的，秦这个项目有夸张的资本。

　　“说到市场，我们的市场是全球第一，如果说资金，中国不缺钱，政府也是支持的，中国有全球最具竞争力的工程师，为什么比别人差？”王传福说。

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China's Largest and First Environmentally-friendly Battery Storage Station is in Service

2011-10-10T21:06:00.000+08:00

China Southern Power Grid (CSG) -- the second largest utility company in the world -- has completed construction of China's largest battery energy storage station (ESS) as well as the World's first megawatt-level, grid-connected, environmentally-friendly, Iron-phosphate (Fe) battery storage station for commercial use, integrating BYD technology. Chinese CSG officials reported, "This Energy Storage Station is capable of charging or discharging over 12 Mega-Watt-hours or 3 Mega-Watts for 4 hours off of or onto the grid -- this is an outstanding accomplishment!" BYD's Chairman, Chuanfu Wang, notes that BYD is at the cutting edge of "a new energy revolution" across China and aims to "lead the world in installing environmentally-sound, battery energy storage systems."

Called the "Shenzhen Baoqing Battery Energy Storage Station," this CSG ESS is located in the Longgang District of Shenzhen City and is tied to a 110 Kilo-Volt (KV) substation supporting the rapidly growing Biling Industrial Park. The system's enabling technology is the BYD Fe (Iron-Phosphate) batteries, BYD's BMS (Battery Management System), a PCS (Power Conversion System) and an energy storage data station which monitors and controls the system to ensure holistic and efficient utilization. The multiple functions of the ESS include:

-- Load-following/Load Leveling or charging during the grid's lowest-usage-periods (i.e. night-time) which make other generation sources like ICE, Coal or Nuclear much more efficient (since the night usage of these stations may be as low as 40% utilized, but they still must run all night);

-- Dispatchable energy during periods of high demand to peak-shave (i.e. day-time spikes in demand);

-- FRR/power quality services to allow millisecond fast frequency adjustments on the grid caused by irregular sources (like wind or solar or power outages) and RRI/ramp-rate control and arbitrage for large renewable installations attached to the grid;

-- Electricity balancing and regulating voltages (reactive power/VAR support) on the grid due to irregular sources like named above;

-- Back-up power sources which guarantees distributed power supply closer to demand consumption during crucial events (e.g. summer outages and cascading regional brown outs which could shut down production and commerce).

The Baoqing Battery Energy Storage Station is in its first stage of implementation (with 3MW maximum output for 4 hour duration), but was designed to eventually have a 10MW output for 4 hours (40 -- 50 MWh) with over a 25 year service life before battery replacements may be needed. The next phases will expand the station's power output step-by-step. BYD and CSG are hoping this real-world application and their partnership will promote the rapid development and implementation of distributed, environmentally-friendly, high-tech, energy storage solutions across the World.

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Car rentals switch up several gears

2011-10-10T21:04:00.000+08:00

Guoxin Vehicle Leasing, a major car-rental company in Hangzhou, thecapital city of East China's Zhejiang province. Car leasing in China saw aboom during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival in September and theseven-day National Day Holiday that started on Oct 1. Provided to ChinaDaily

Demand cannot match supply, say international and domestic companies in the auto-hiremarket

SHANGHAI - Shanghai-based office worker Chen Hao thought his plan with his friends wasperfect. He would fly to Nanning, in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, then rent a car thereto drive around the beautiful tourist city during the week-long National Day Holiday from Oct 1to 7.

However, the only problem for the 26-year-old travel-lover, who obtained his driving license justthree months ago, was that there were too many people in China harboring a similarly "perfectplan" to his. And, apparently, they had been quicker off the mark.

"I had settled everything and visited the rental company two weeks before the holiday, which issufficient even for a train trip, usually the most crowded one," said Chen. "It just never occurredto me that the (car rental) market was so hot."

As a result, Chen gave up his plan because the "perfect" car at a "perfect" rental price, aVolkswagen Polo for 129 yuan ($20.20) a day, was no longer available, and the budget travelerwas not willing to pay as much as 50 percent more to make his trip "perfect" as planned.

Fueled by millions of young backpackers like Chen, and perhaps, an equally large number ofpeople who work away from their hometowns and who also feel like driving back, the Chinesecar rental market saw a boom during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival in September, atraditional holiday for family reunions, and the National Day Holiday.

"We doubled our car fleet to more than 1,000 vehicles this year in China. But, still, supply isgreatly outnumbered by demand," said Terence Chiu, general manager of Avis Car Rental inChina.

"Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, bookings flew in a week in advance. With the NationalHoliday, 70 percent of our cars were booked two to three weeks in advance," Chiu added.

Domestic car rental companies have experienced similar results as international firms. Theyhave been more aggressive in their marketing strategies and expansion in recent years,launching advertising campaigns at places including metro stations and central office buildingsmonths ahead of the two neighboring holidays.

Bookings with Shenzhou and eHi Car Service, two of the major players in the market, showedthat during the Mid-Autumn Festival, all cars costing no more than 200 yuan a day to rent werefully booked. Just before the National Holiday, budget cars at these companies, such as theMazda 2 and BYD FO, were no longer available.

"Now even my friends are coming to me to rent an inexpensive car, but all I can say is, 'Sorry,you have to wait'," Chiu from Avis told China Daily.

Along with the soaring demand, the price of car rentals is, unsurprisingly, also climbing.

According to a salesman with eHi Car Service in Shanghai who declined to give his name, therehas been an average of 50 to 60 percent rise in rental fees. With some popular car types, theprice has even doubled.

Cars have to be leased for at least three days during the National Day Holiday, according tothe terms and conditions on the official website of Shenzhou and eHi.

Despite the higher threshold, customers are not being deterred.

"In the past, the most popular cars were usually economy vehicles with the lowest prices," saidShao Wei, a senior executive with eHi Car Service. "But in recent months, safer and morecomfortable cars are gradually gaining momentum, especially among young urbanites, whohave learned from experience to trust the new industry."

One of the major driving forces behind the industry's growth is increasing investment fromventure capitalists into the capital-intensive business. This has allowed rental companies to buymore new cars and launch wider promotions.

"Basically, it's a market in which no one knows its limit," said Chiu from Avis. "The currentsituation here is however many cars you can provide, the market can take them all."

Chiu suggested that over the next five years, Avis is planning to invest a minimum of 3 billionyuan in the Chinese market, expanding both its locations and rental car fleet to 10 timescurrent numbers.

Although the short-term rental service, mostly from individual customers, accounted for 25percent of the company's business in China, Chiu believes there is a huge potential that couldbe, and may continue to be, the real reason for the strong growth of the market.

There is a wide gap between the ever-increasing number of driving-license holders and thenumber of civilian automobiles restricted by the government, the limited road space and risingfuel costs.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security showed that, by 2010, there were 150 milliondriving-license holders in China and, in the coming years, the number is likely to increase at therate of 20 million a year.

In contrast, metropolises such as Beijing and Shanghai are introducing a number of toughpolicies including limiting purchases of new cars through a sales quota system and carregistration plate auctioning.

According to a report issued by the international consulting firm Roland Berger, in 2010, thecar rental industry in China achieved an annual turnover of 18.2 billion yuan. By 2014, it isestimated that the market would have more than 400,000 cars and produce 38 billion yuan inannual revenues.

China Daily

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Chinese company BYD will unveil its eBUS-12 full-sized single deck electric bus at Busworld in Kortrijk Belgium on 21 October 2011

2011-10-01T13:16:00.002+08:00

Its eBUS-12 is believed to be the first full-size, full electric bus in the world, and is due to enter trial service in several European cities, including London, Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, in the coming months.

BYD says this first vehicle will be followed by a range of new eBUS models in the near future, including a seven-metre bus and a double decker.

Designed for passenger comfort, the eBUS-12 has a cleverly engineered in-wheel drive and electronically controlled air suspension (ECAS).

ECAS gives the all-electric bus an exceptionally low floor, a wide door and ample floor space for easy passenger loading and unloading.

Meanwhile, as BYD's first pure electric bus, the eBUS-12 also employs an interesting mix of propulsion support technologies.

BYD cites its own Fe Battery, which can be recycled, solar panels installed on top of the bus, and a trip computer on the instrument panel, which provides service information for the driver.

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Dalio Says `Nothing Surprising' About European Crisis

2011-09-17T17:05:00.001+08:00

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BYD responds to public concerns

2011-09-17T10:40:00.000+08:00

Chinadaily.com.cn's reporter Meng Fanbin interviewed Mr Wang from BYD Public RelationsDepartment about recent issues under public scrutiny . Here are the scripts.

"Revenues falling"

Reporter: BYD was reporting an 89 percent fall in first-half net income due to sluggish sales.What are the main reasons?

Mr Wang: The expiration of government incentives for small cars and increasing competitionare the main reasons for the sales plunge.

Reporter: Apart from the outside reasons, is there something wrong with BYD?

Mr Wang: BYD is a green hand in auto industry. We lack experience in regional channelexpansion and regional channel allocation.

"Staff reduction"

Reporter: How large-scale is BYD's staff reduction?

Mr Wang: "Staff reduction" is not the appropriate term to describe our recent adjustment. "Workforce rearrangement" can be better words. BYD is just downsizing the auto salescompany and increasing working efficiency in accordance with the changing market.

Reporter: BYD will close its marketing and sales divisions by Sept 30. What other departmentswere dismissed by BYD?

Mr Wang: First of all, we don't need many regional managers who serve for auto dealers, sothey were sent to other departments to learn. Secondly, employees who had been in closeconnection with techniques were dispatched to work in the technique department.

Reporter: That is to say there was no large scale layoff, is that right?

Mr. Wang: We didn't lay them off. Many quit their jobs voluntarily because they didn't getsatisfactory payments in the new position. Several former employees in BYD curse thecompany on the Internet to vent their discontent. What they have said are not the total truth.

"Airbags flaws"

Reporter: CCTV reported that the airbags on the popular F3 model cars failed to automaticallyopen in several crashes, would you please explain this?

Mr Wang: Auto Safety airbags are used only for emergency and they deploy on the condition ofparticular angels and strength. We accept that we have some responsibility for it, but it is oneof the common problems that the whole auto industry must face. Other luxury car brands hadonce faced similar claims after accidents.

"Three years' adjustment phase "

Reporter: What is BYD going to do in the three year adjustment period?

Mr Wang: BYD's main goal is to optimize its products. In order to improve the quality of cars, ithas to improve the quality of productions, sale skills and management systems. Until now, wehave done a lot to improve the quality of our autos, for example, we just launched our first SUVS6 model to adapt to the Chinese market. Our newly-produced cars have made great progressin quality.

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BYD: What went wrong when everything looked so right?

2011-09-17T10:38:00.000+08:00

BYD was once the star of the Chinese auto industry. BYD’s founder, Wang Chuanfu was said to be a combination of Jack Welch and Thomas Edison. His company, meanwhile, made bold predictions of becoming the largest Chinese auto manufacturer by 2015 and the largest in the world by 2025.

Indeed, as one of China’s youngest auto companies, BYD exploded onto the scene in 2003. Within just a few years, its F3 and F0 models became among the best selling vehicles in their class. BYD ramped up production rapidly, even purchasing a Changsha-based bus manufacturer. Simultaneously, BYD built dealerships at “Shenzhen speed,” exploding from just 100 in 2005 to some 1100 by the end of 2010. It appeared to many that BYD’s draconian policies with its dealerships and its targeted dealer networks (A1, A2, A3,A4…) formed the ‘secret sauce’ of their success.

On top of all that, BYD became the darling of Warren Buffet and the media after a $232 million investment by Berkshire Hathaway. BYD promised to make lithium batteries that were cheaper and more reliable than anyone else. By combining their auto business with their battery business, it was assumed, BYD could conquer the burgeoning EV market and leave competitors far behind.

What went wrong?

Suddenly, less than two years after being featured on the cover of Fortune Magazine and being named as among the most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company, BYD appears to be on the ropes. Their land and factory complex was confiscated in Xi’an when the government determined that the land was obtained “illegally.” BYD dealers have rebelled, staging protests against BYD’s upper management and harsh polices, some have thrown in the towel entirely arguing that BYD’s policies allow them no room for profit. Auto sales are falling, and profits are plunging.

If that wasn’t bad enough, BYD’s EV dream seems to grow dimmer by the day. BYD managed to sell just 400 F3DM’s in 2010. The e6, meanwhile, has faced repeated delays in the Chinese market, and its appearance in North America is more than a year behind schedule.

Poised for a turnaround?

The simple fact is that BYD expanded too quickly in its early years. Like an overheated economy, a correction will (and is) taking place. But, if managed correctly, BYD may recover a much stronger and competitive company than it was prior to 2010.

If one peers deeper, behind the doom and gloom presented in the media, BYD is actually showing signs of a turnaround. While the media was quick to cover the Xi’an land scandal, it made little mention that the regulatory agency later revoked it decision and returned the land and factories to BYD. BYD has stopped its senseless dealership expansion and removed of number of redundant facilities. Furthermore, they abandoned their draconian policies and focused on improving the training of dealership personnel. It is said that the number of complaints lodged against BYD’s dealers has fallen to half.

Furthermore, BYD’s sales numbers mask an important trend: diversification. BYD’s meteoric sales boom from 2005-2009 was driven almost exclusively by just two models, the F3 and F0. Now, as those two models face growing competition and market saturation, their sales are declining. The decline of the F3 and F0 is pulling down BYD’s sales numbers…but this does not represent a trend across all models. In fact, BYD’s newer models, such as the G3 and L3 are doing modestly well. The S6 SUV has gotten off to a great start and is among the top selling SUVs in the country. I expect that the G6, to be released soon, will also do quite well. Unfortunately, it appears that both the S8 and M6 models are dead on arrival (a price cut on the M6 should solve that, but I see no hope for the S8 as it was misguided from the beginning).

BYD’s sales diversification is coupled with a strong push upmarket; away from the cheap vehicles that most Chinese auto manufactures produce. Geely, the only other large privately-owned Chinese automaker, experienced a similar drop in sales as it began its transition away from low-end vehicles in 2007. Geely managed to pull through,and has reaped the benefits of higher-end vehicles…which carry larger profit margins. If BYD can manage to break through this ceiling, they too will be able to take advantage the larger profits margins it affords.

That said, BYD’s unique selling point has never been their gasoline vehicles, but rather their much touted plug-ins and EVs. While sales of the F3DM have been disappointing to say the least, the car is actually doing well in comparison to other electric vehicles being marketed in China. The failure of the F3DM is as much the failure of the Chinese government as it isBYD’s. What you say? China’s government has hefty support for “New Energy Vehicles,” therefore we cannot blame the government for BYD’s failure?

The reality is that China’s government has been very resistant to subsidizing EVs and plug-ins. In 2009 the government began providing up to $7,500 in subsidies for plug-ins and $8,800 for full EVs. That may sound like a great deal, but the subsidies were only available in 13 Chinese cities, and even then only to fleet buyers…not private individuals. The subsidy program was expanded to 20 cities in 2010, but even now, only 5 cities actually subsidize the private purchase of New Energy Vehicles (Beijing may be added this year). I believe that China’s government, which favors their own state-owned giants like BAIC or SAIC, is waiting until their own companies catch up in battery technology before rolling out a comprehensive/national plan to bring EVs to the forefront.

This is unfortunate for BYD, and may make significant EV sales impossible for a few years. Nonetheless, BYD’s much-delayed e6 is showing some limited success. Last year, fifty e6s were deployed as taxis in a joint venture with the Shenzhen government. After a year of operation, the e6s had no safety incidents and despite frequent rapid charging, had less than predicted levels of battery decay. This year, the Shenzhen government has ordered 250 more. Hertz has signed on to begin renting the e6 in select cities, and a redesigned (and much improved) version of the e6, called the e6B or e6 Sport should go on sale in China by the end of October. Meanwhile, plans to export the e6 to North America are steadily moving forward. BYD recently launched a redesigned website for North America, and appear ready to begin shipping their vehicles in early 2012. Development of the joint BYD-Daimler luxury EV is said to be going smoothly as well. We should expect to see a prototype by the end of the year, with production beginning sometime next year.

BYD’s K9 electric bus seems to be generating a fair degree of attention as well, and may prove to be BYD’s savoir. The economics of electric buses may prove easier to justify as they follow pre-determined routes and therefore require fewer charging stations than taxis or private EVs. In the near term, the K9 could be the breadwinner for BYD. Already the Shenzhen government has ordered some 200 buses, and Changsha has followed with an additional 100. Reportedly, the Chinese central government also ordered 70 and orders for small numbers of K9s have poured in from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles, Rotterdam, and Frankfurt. Though the orders have typically been small, just a few units, they are intended as test orders and could lead to large fleet orders in the future.

BYD clearly has their work cut out for them. There is no denying that BYD bit off more than it could chew…and now is dealing with the consequences. But I wouldn’t give up on BYD just yet. How one views BYD is a matter of seeing the glass half full or half empty. The choice is yours.

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As Sales Slump, BYD Exec Says Auto Maker is Going Upscale

2011-09-01T09:20:00.000+08:00

: Forbes Conrad/Bloomberg; Stella Li, senior vice president of BYD Co, poses in a BYD e6 electric car at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, on Friday, June 17, 2011.

: BYD; A promotional image shows BYD’s S6 sedan-SUV crossover.

More In BYD

Thanks to a nagging slump in car sales, Warren Buffett-backed Chinese battery producer and auto maker BYD appears to berunning short of funds to carry out its ambitious plans for electric cars and other “green” technologies. The big question: When will BYD’s sales of gasoline cars rebound?

While most industry observers are doubtful about the prospects for an early recovery, Stella Li, a key BYD executive now based in the U.S., said the company expects sales of gasoline cars to start posting year-on-year growth again by the end of the second quarter next year.

Of course, that is well at least half a year from now, and in the mean time BYD is likely to continue to report dismal business results. Sales of BYD’s gasoline cars have slipped every month since August last year.

Still, Ms. Li expects the turnaround to happen because Chinese consumers are responding positively to new cars BYD launched recently – most notably a new car-SUV crossover called the S6. The company also has high hopes for an upcoming sedan called G6. Both are larger and supposedly more upscale than compact cars BYD has focused on since they entered the car business in 2003 when it took over a small car maker in Xian.

“Our strategy is to focus more on premium-feel cars, and we are also focusing on introducing more green cars,” Mr. Li said in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles, where BYD’s U.S. operations are headquartered. “Our target is to turn vehicle sales around by Q2 next year,” she said, referring to the second quarter of 2012.

Ms. Li said the reason why BYD is recalibrating its product strategy and is refocusing its product lineup on more upscale cars is because more and more Chinese consumers are now replacing their first cars, which they purchased several years ago, and are spending a bit more to buy new cars. Those consumers have tended to buy cars from foreign makers producing vehicles here with local Chinese partners – a trend that has depressed sales of cars from the country’s home-grown brands such as BYD, Chery and Geely. By coming up with more upscale cars such as the S6 and the G6, BYD is trying to keep those consumers from deserting the BYD brand.

BYD says it still plans to make an all-electric car called the e6 widely available to private buyers in China and the U.S. over the next couple of years. The company is also expected to launch another all-electric car in China it has been developing jointly with Germany’s Daimler AG by 2013. A Daimler spokeswoman said last week that project “is on track.”

Industry insiders and analysts say strategic cars like the S6 crossover and the G6 sedan aren’t likely to save BYD. “They lost momentum in terms of traditional vehicles because even though they have done well with compact cars, they have not had any other breakthrough products,” said Yale Zhang, head of automotive consulting company Automotive Foresight in Shanghai.

Take the S6 for instance. “The car looks like a copy of the Lexus RX. BYD’s brand image simply cannot support the type of more luxurious product they’re trying to promote,” Mr. Zhang said.

Ms. Li said she expects sales of those new cars to gain more momentum toward the end of this year. Banking on the “popularity” of the S6, BYD is setting aside enough capacity to produce by the last quarter of this year 10,000 S6 crossover cars a month, or 120,000 of them a year.

“The car is very popular and demand is very strong,” Ms. Li said.

While BYD doesn’t lack for optimism, history suggests the company and its investors may want to temper their expectations.

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China's Plug-In Carmaker BYD Checks the Wires

2011-08-25T22:54:00.002+08:00

Weak buyer demand and dealer discontent preceded the surprise resignation of automaker BYD Co.'s Xia Zhibing, the company's vice president for auto sales, in early August.

But the woes at privately owned BYD apparently run far deeper than the anemic sales figures suggest, indicating Xia might have decided to jump from a floundering ship.

(Xia Zhibing)

BYD recently listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange but its debut share prices fell short of market expectations. Shortly thereafter, it reported dismal half-year sales results.

The company reported selling about 220,000 vehicles in the first six months of 2011, down 23 percent from the same period last year. The report came August 23, less than two weeks after Xia announced through a microblog that before leaving he had "misled the company sales team" due to "eagerness for quick success and instant benefits."

While under pressure to boost sales, Xia said he'd been too harsh with the company's retail dealers. He failed to elaborate, however, declining media interviews.

Eight years ago, BYD was a maker of lithium-ion batteries that made a major leap into the auto industry. Not only did the company attract an investment from U.S. billionaire financier Warren Buffet, but for a time BYD's sales results backed up these aspirations.

According to company statements, BYD booked 48.4 billion yuan in revenue last year, a 21-fold increase from 2002, when the Shenzhen-based company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

But Tang Jun, an analyst at GF Securities, said BYD is currently working through the growing pains any rapidly developing company may face.

Dealer Exodus

The pain was apparently too great for Xia. He officially left the company for "personal reasons," according to a BYD statement, but after some 308 unhappy dealers, or nearly 23 percent of its nationwide total, stopped selling the company's vehicles.

Last year's exodus from the dealer network was described in June in the prospectus for the Shenzhen exchange filing. The prospectus said dealers withdrew either because they failed to meet company-assigned sales targets or had lacked confidence in BYD's growth outlook.

But an industry source told Caixin that, in fact, the dealers quit because they were upset with BYD's management.

"In general, manufacturers give dealers sales targets," the source explained. "Once a target is met, manufacturers return some profits to dealers.

"But BYD often ignores this unspoken rule."

In late 2010, BYD founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu admitted in an interview with Caixin that the company had made mistakes with its dealer network. "We're making adjustments," he added.

The market itself has been adjusting as well. Since January, auto sales have cooled because the central government lifted tax incentives for car buyers and several major cities introduced car-purchase restrictions to fight traffic jams.

Despite the tougher climate, China's automakers still booked 3.4 percent year-on-year sales growth in the first half of 2011 to 9.3 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Some analysts say BYD fell behind other carmakers because Chinese consumers started shunning its models.

"Chinese consumers now pay more attention to quality and the brand names of cars," said an industry source. "That is what homegrown carmakers like BYD are really weak at."

BYD has an image problem, the source said, as consumers now lump its cars together with other indigenous brands that have a reputation for a lot of small problems. And its image is unlikely to change in the short term.

Dying Batteries?

BYD launched its first electric car in 2008, but according to the prospectus total plug-in sales have yet to exceed 1,000 units. That includes the estimated 500 electric buses and taxis that the company built for the World University Games held in Shenzhen in August.

Plug-in cars had been the big attraction for Buffet in September 2008, when the investor bought 10 percent of BYD's shares for US$ 230 million. Investors were generally positive about the company's strategy which called for pouring money earned from sales of conventional cars into electric car research and development.

Wang last year acknowledged that it's hard to make money selling electric vehicles. But he optimistically predicted profits from conventional vehicles would support the development of electric vehicles, as well as help the company master complete-vehicle manufacturing technology to build a foundation for a whole line of electric vehicles.

Most analysts interviewed by Caixin said BYD will not abandon its ongoing research and development into electric vehicles. But Chen Huanyu, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities (Hong Kong) Ltd., admitted that the market for new-energy vehicles has yet to mature.

Chen does not expect BYD to achieve significant growth in the plug-in sector until 2013. Other analysts agreed that several years would have to pass before the electric vehicle industry is fully charged in China.

Moreover, BYD's alternative car story apparently has lost some of its appeal among investors. Many may have good reason now to doubt Buffet and other BYD backers, since profits from traditional car manufacturing are now shrinking.

According to the latest financial report, BYD's net profit fell 89 percent year-on-year in the first half to 275 million yuan. Earnings also fell 33 percent between 2010 and the previous year.

Auto sales made up 46 percent of BYD's revenue between January and June, down 25 percent from a year earlier, to 10.3 billion yuan. BYD's mobile phone component manufacturing and rechargeable battery operations, respectively, accounted for 43 percent and 11 percent of total revenues. Both non-car divisions posted year-on-year growth.

BYD raised 1.15 billion yuan through its IPO in late June. To ensure a successful listing on the Shenzhen bourse, Wang had voluntarily lowered the debut price to 18 yuan per share, compared with a recommended price of 22 yuan set by lead underwriter UBS Securities, according to a source from the Chinese unit of UBS AG.

BYD adopted this conservative strategy mainly because its growth momentum is slowing. The company is in urgent need of new financing to sustain growth and could not afford a failure with its mainland listing, said a securities analyst.

Switching Gears

The company is trying to get back on track by altering its vertically integrated business model, a mid-level executive told Caixin.

Analysts previously praised BYD for forming an integrated industrial chain, saying the system effectively kept costs in check. Like other Chinese auto brands, BYD takes a low-cost approach to carmaking. Yet its profits are higher than domestic counterparts, apparently because it uses an integrated industrial chain model.

Industrial Securities analyst Li Gangling said the business model may actually drag BYD's operations now that the consumer climate is weak and automakers have excess capacity. The model means the company must bear more operational risks and raise management challenges.

"Previously, BYD supplied 100 percent of its own components," the company executive said. "Now it's changed to 80 percent. The other 20 percent were introduced with competing outside vendors."

And that 80 percent self-supply rate is not BYD's baseline, the executive added.

"If vendors have components of high quality, (we'll) use those," he said. "If internally we're still not okay, it's possible we'll reduce the self-supply rate from 80 percent to 60 percent.

"The idea is we'll continue to eliminate backward production processes."

This sort of adjustment may also change recent investment arrangements. According to the prospectus, the company plans to invest in auto and component production bases in Changsha and Xi'an, as well as testing grounds and an auto parts production base in Shaoguan.

But the executive told Caixin that the Changhsa and Shaoguan projects may be scrapped.

A Changjiang Securities report said BYD's focus used to be pure expansion, but for the past year it's switched gears and adopted a new philosophy that puts more emphasis on product quality.

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叩关海外比亚迪 (BYD) 储能电池日本市场受热捧

2011-07-31T15:27:00.002+08:00

近日，据日本东京电视台《晚间新闻》播出，比亚迪蓄电池正式进入东京都内调剂药局安装使用。东邦药品河野博行社长对此表示，基于今年日本大地震对医疗事业所产生的影响(停电导致药局医疗电脑不能使用，影响工作进程)，调剂药局决定引进家庭用的小型电池以确保医疗工作的顺利开展，而此次采用的蓄电池是中国最大的电池厂家比亚迪所研发制造。

　　据悉，在2010年收购了日本荻原馆林模具工厂之后，比亚迪在日本市场一跃成名，而日本的电池市场也是其新的市场目标。对此，比亚迪蓄电池代理店负责人铃木智英表示：“对于此项计划，公司已经筹备良久并开始顺利销售，预计日本市场对此将有很大需求”。

　　自3月日本大地震以来，日本家电量贩店的防灾产品柜台上，最受瞩目的就是家庭用蓄电池，而比亚迪的蓄电池更广受追捧。Bic camara新宿西口店牛渡広树副店长表示，该店从上个月开始销售比亚迪的蓄电池，和之前的中小型蓄电池产品相比，比亚迪产品的最大特点是有2.4kwh的大容量，“500升的冰箱、42寸的液晶电视采用比亚迪蓄电池可以使用长达12小时之久”。而在普遍高于100万日元的大型蓄电池中，比亚迪80万日元的价格远低于同行，在日本市场具有极大的优势。

　　据介绍，日本国内对比亚迪早已进行过深入的考察、研究，日本媒体WSB更专程为此远赴比亚迪深圳总部工厂进行考察。WSB记者児岛太一表示，“WSB来到了对日本市场发起攻势的比亚迪总部基地，这里开发、生产的产品面向全世界在出货。”约300万平方米的比亚迪总部基地让児岛太一倍感惊叹，他对于比亚迪特色之一的省电住宅及Smart-house——未来村表示出了浓厚的兴趣。据介绍，Smart-house能把太阳光及风能高效率地转化为电能，完全满足家庭的所有用电。同时，该住宅3年前在实际应用中已取得显着成效，并已成功进军欧美市场。对此，比亚迪日本商务部高级销售经理王驰表示：“比亚迪既有小容量的系统，同时也有应用于一栋独立房屋供电用的18kwh大容量系统。”

　　 WSB记者児岛太一表示：“比亚迪的储能电站值得信赖，并已供货给中国南方电网，采用比亚迪的电池作为停电时的备用电源，最大可以给7000代供电”。对此，比亚迪王驰表示，“在技术及成本方面，我们很有信心，我们致力于给日本提供好的产品。一栋独立的房屋能使用多少电？在空间方面有何需求？今后我们也会致力于这方面的研究。”

　　随着日本的家电厂家、住宅厂家以及汽车厂家相继进入家庭用电池市场，产品的开发及相互的价格竞争也许会加速其面向家庭的普及，而比亚迪蓄电池的强势进入，不仅使其成为中国电池行业走向国外的新标杆，更为世界电池市场的发展提供了强大的技术支撑，成为中国创造的一面旗帜。

Link

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers On The Future Of Coal, Nuclear, And The Energy Industry

2011-07-30T14:35:00.000+08:00

What have been some of the biggest challenges of running a massive utility?

In the five years since I've been at Duke, our biggest challenges have been several things. One is the recognition that after 50 years, the real price of electricity is going to rise because of tighter regulations on coal plants and the recognition that we have to restrict carbon. [After the merger] we will be [one of the] largest emitters of CO2 in the U.S. We have a special responsibility to lead on that issue.

We will have to retire and replace virtually every plant by 2050. In a sense, that gives us a blank sheet of paper. What will we build in the future? One of our challenges is going to be to try to position the company to totally remake its system of generation and at the same time modernize our grid, which effectively means going from an analogue grid to a digital grid.

What do you believe the energy mix will look like in the coming decades?

Over the last 20 years we have started using coal in a cleaner way. But there needs to be more technological development to use it in a low carbon world. Is this carbon capture and storage (CCS)? Is it a system to use algae to capture carbon and accelerate the growth of algae and then use it as a biofuel? I think CCS will play a role particularly if utilities are in a region where the geography works, but that's predominantly in the Midwest. The ultimate solution to [make coal more sustainable] is to recycle the carbon. We have relationships with a number of Chinese companies, and they're actually more focused on how you recycle the carbon rather than storing it. On some level, it seems like a more sustainable practice to take it and reuse it rather than store it in the ground.

So you do still believe coal will play an important part of the energy mix in the future?

By 2030 coal will still be here and be used, but in the longer term, with the realization that we will have carbon constraints, the question is whether the technology will evolve to allow coal to remain a [clean] alternative. Whether or not these technologies will be here in 2050 is a function of how well we can develop technology to reduce their emissions footprint. With respect to renewables, how fast can we bring down the cost of solar and wind in a way that we don't need subsidies?

Do you think solar and wind will become cheap enough to compete with traditional energy sources?

I do. [The price of] wind has come down rather dramatically. What's going to drive down the cost of solar--although I don't believe Moore's Law applies to solar--if you look at the Chinese who are leading the world in solar panel production, wind turbine production, and probably lead the world in the development of batteries ...the Chinese are developing the intellectual property of scaling, and that in itself is what creates value. The Chinese are going to find a way to scale this, and as they scale this, they will drive the costs down. I am confident that over the next two to three decades you're going to see prices come down pretty dramatically.

What about the future of nuclear plants?

We will have to retire and replace every [Duke Energy] nuclear plant by 2050. Lets start with the simple assumption that 70% of [low-carbon] electricity today comes from nuclear. If we had to replace that with gas...it would have a fairly detrimental impact with respect to climate. Two things give me hope. One is evolving technologies, the second is development of modular nuclear technology.

When I look at nuclear, I look at it both as modular as well as large plants in the future. I believe we have to solve the spent fuel issue. The question is whether we store it or recycle it. My judgment is that we'll find a way to recycle it. So [nuclear] will play a role, and it's kind of hard now to really predict the role. I mean, that's what makes this puzzle so interesting, because we know what the pieces are, we kind of have inklings of what some of the shapes of the pieces will be tomorrow, but to put the map together of what the mix will be--it's a pretty intriguing exercise. We've got to do it. We don't have a choice.

What are some of the new energy technologies that will be prevalent in the future that aren't so well known today?

If I knew that I'd be taking money and making bets. I think modular nuclear as a group will be breakout. I think there are going to be breakthroughs in solar technology. I think in the long run solar will trump wind because solar can be distributed [on rooftops] and also I think will be more efficient than wind turbines over time for a variety of different reasons.

I think battery technology will be transformative, not just with respect to intermittent sources of power, but also it has a fundamental impact on how the grid actually operates. I'm following very closely what BYD is doing. I think zinc air [battery technology] is kind of interesting because [the cells] become grid storage, which I think is important.

These are some of the areas that I think will evolve. The only question is which ones will be lowest cost and most efficient. We're at a very important point, I believe. I wish I could be a CEO for another 23 years. The technologies are coming together and are evolving. Some are clearer than others. I've always told people particularly recently that we're a technology company disguised as a utility.

Link

BYD Zinc-Air Battery

Notes: Thanks to Yahoo Msg Board

BYD-Daimler’s first car hits the patent office

2011-07-30T14:21:00.002+08:00

BYD and Daimler signed a joint venture several months ago with plans to build a new brand which would utilize BYD’s electrical know how and Daimler’s automotive engineering skills and would focus solely on building new energy cars. The two have pushed a design to the Chinese patent board which of course was leaked in rapid time to the internet, the design clearly shows that BYD and Daimler have taken a design styles from existing models in their own respective portfolios, the side profile shows a little bit of the Mercedes B-Class where as the front grill is clearly BYD inspired, although this all changes when you get to the rear and see BMW 5-series style lights.

On looking at the car from the front and the side it appears to be a sedan, but in actual fact it seems to be a hatchback with a small protruding rear tail like in the style of Skoda’s more recent models and possibly more in line with the BMW 5-Series GT.

News on the powertrain seems to be very thin on the ground, its not entirely clear what the new car will be packing under the hood, but we will keep you updated as news becomes available.

Link

China is player to watch in tech R&D

2011-07-25T21:48:00.002+08:00

China is evolving from the world’s factory to a crucible of innovation, rapidly approaching a world-class level in terms of both quantity and quality of research carried out. This carries profound implications for the competitiveness of Korea’s main industries and so-called growth engines.

The big strides in China are in response to the government’s push to nurture indigenous innovation in order to end dependence on foreign technology and to help shift the Chinese economy into more capital and technology-intensive industries. But the seeds of the R&D commitment were sown even before a national innovation development plan was unveiled in 2006.

Since 2000, the nation’s annual investment in R&D has expanded by 23 percent. In 2011, China is expected to rank second in terms of R&D investment based on purchasing power parity. In addition, China is benefitting from the largest national R&D workforce in the world, 20 percent of the world’s total R&D brain power.

In both quantitative and qualitative terms, China has shown an impressive performance in innovation. From 2007-9, the annual average number of Chinese articles published in international science and technology journals totaled 104,157, placing China second. As for the number of articles covered in the top 10 percent of international journals, China ranked fourth from 2007-9, up from 19th place in 1987-89.

According to a Total Factor Productivity analysis of approximately 1,200 companies each from China and Korea from 2001-9, Chinese companies’ annual average TFP growth stood at 4.46 percent compared to Korea’s 3.36 percent. If we assume Korea and China’s productivity levels were equal in 2001, China’s TFP growth was 20 percentage points higher than Korea’s in 2001-9. Technological progress accounts for nearly 90 percent of the TFP growth in China but only 63 percent in Korea. In particular, China is rapidly closing the technology gap with Korea’s mainstay industries such as electronics and automobiles. In new promising industries such as pharmaceuticals, solar power and electric automobiles, China’s technological capability has already overtaken Korea, leading the global industrial trend.

In the electronics industry, China has surpassed Korea in R&D investment. It also started to overtake Korea in terms of the number of Patent Cooperation Treaty filings in 2008. As for telecommunication equipment and smart home solutions, China is grabbing the lead in next-generation product development. And in the electric car industry, strong government support already has led to international standards being set by Chinese companies such as BYD.

Being sandwiched between advanced countries’ high-end products and emerging countries’ low-end products, Korea has tried to gain competitiveness advantages by maximizing its strengths as a “fast follower” that upgrades existing products but keeps costs in check. However, China’s low-price and high-quality products, thanks to its innovation capabilities, will likely enjoy an increasing presence in the global market and apply pressure on Korean products.

In response to China’s innovation strides, Korea needs to reestablish a national R&D system geared to maximizing its technological competitiveness. Rather than pursuing quantitative competition, Korea should pursue qualitative competition by supporting “star companies” or “star researchers.”

Meanwhile, by strengthening a link between R&D main performers such as universities, research institutes and companies, the utilization of research results should be significantly improved. Second, Korean companies quite simply need to outpace their Chinese rivals in the innovation race. Korea’s world-class operational technology and operating efficiency in mainstay industries need to be maximized and bold investments into future industries should be made.

Lastly, Korean companies should explore ways to utilize China’s top personnel related to key technologies.

Link to the Article

Wang Chuan Fu : Good time to buy BYD

2011-07-03T21:39:00.000+08:00

昨日，比亚迪在深圳中小板正式挂牌，回归A股市场的夙愿终得实现。

从昨日市场表现看，比亚迪股票受到投资者热烈追捧，与近期新股首日表现萎靡不振形成鲜明对比。比亚迪开盘报22元，较发行价18元涨 22.22%;终盘收于25.45元，远超在港上市的比亚迪股份当日上涨5.67%后25.15港元的收盘价，涨幅达41.39%，全天换手率高达 87.96%。比亚迪董事长王传福接受记者采访时表示，巴菲特现在没有减持计划;今年是电动车量产元年，新能源业务3年内将会有可观利润，现在正是买入比亚迪股票的好时机。

虽然比亚迪A股市场表现较为强势，但其刚刚公布的H股一季度财务报表却显示，净利润同比下滑84%。对此，王传福解释称，实际上今年一季度比去年四季度的表现已有进步，整体业绩正在改善，业绩下滑的原因一方面由于去年一季度利润偏高，而去年全年的趋势是国内汽车业发展速度放缓，另一方面与公司的新能源业务今年下半年才开始发力有关。王传福认为，总体来看，同比差一些，但环比向好。

对于坊间巴菲特要减持比亚迪股票的传闻，王传福予以澄清，称巴菲特现在没有减持的计划。而对于此次在A股市场上发行的新股规模缩水，王传福解释称，当初写筹备计划是在两三年前，现在市场环境发生了变化，因此规模会有所下降，不过这并不影响公司回归A股市场的决心，而这一点也恰恰证明现在是最好的买入机会。

“比亚迪汽车业务的主要市场还是在中国大陆，我们也希望实现产品市场和股票市场的统一。”针对为何回归A股的提问，王传福如是回答。

王传福预计，新能源业务3年内便会有可观利润。对于今年下半年的业绩展望，王传福认为有两个支撑点：一是下半年公交电动化的推动，新能源车(包括一部分公交电动大巴)大规模交货，对公司的新能源业务增长形成强大的支撑;二是今年下半年将面向私家车市场销售E6新车(深圳目前启用的电动出租车就是 E6)，这款车经过一年的出租车运营测试，性能更趋完善，这也将对公司的新能源业务形成较强支撑。

王传福昨日也介绍了深圳50台电动出租车的运营情况。据介绍，比亚迪提供的50台电动出租车已运行了13个月，累积里程已超过300万公里，单车里程最长已达到13万公里，相当于私家车开了6年的里程。在整个运营过程中，电池容量、行驶里程均保持稳定，没有出现任何安全事故。在今年深圳大运会期间，比亚迪将提供500台电动汽车，其中包括200台电动大巴和300台电动出租车。王传福认为，这是完全市场化的示范运营，意义非同一般，在全世界范围内也具有示范意义。

“电动车时代已经到来，电动车的瓶颈技术——电池问题已经解决，下一步将准备大规模生产。”王传福表示，2011年应该是比亚迪大规模量产电动车的元年，乘着国家“十二五”规划大力扶持新能源和电动汽车产业的春风，比亚迪也希望未来能够借助A股市场平台放大新能源业务的成长。

Link to the Article

SMRT in MOU to sell electric vehicles in Singapore

2011-06-02T18:02:00.000+08:00

SMRT Corporation Ltd said on Thursday that its unit, subsidiary, SMRT International Pte Ltd (SMRT), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with green energy technology company, BYD Company Limited, to distribute and sell electric vehicles in Singapore.

Both parties will enter into discussions on the possibility of establishing a joint venture to develop, distribute and sell electric vehicles, including e-buses and electric taxi vehicles.

The MOU with BYD underlines SMRT's commitment to environmental sustainability, the transport group said.

SMRT became the first public transport provider in Singapore and South East Asia to purchase Euro V compliant buses in May 2008, and now has more than 140 Euro V buses on the roads.

SMRT Buses also started trials for two environmentally-friendly buses in January 2011, the German-made MAN A22 Euro V bus and its first diesel-electric hybrid bus made by China's Zhong Tong.

Link to the News

First BYD Electric Vehicles to Arrive in Nederlands

2011-05-31T08:58:00.002+08:00

Yesterday BYD Company Ltd (BYD) and Rotterdam City entered into an agreement to deliver the BYD’s all-electric e6 vehicles as part of Nederland’s green transportation project “75-EV-RO” – the first e6’s in all of Europe. The Netherlands Prince Maurits van Oranje, Vice Mayor of Rotterdam Mrs. A. van Huffelen, Chinese Ambassador Mr. Zhang Jun and BYD’s Henry Li (Auto Division GM) were all present for the signing ceremony in Rotterdam City Hall. As part of the 75-EV-RO project, the Rotterdam government plans to purchase 75 new energy vehicles of different types to create a new energy fleet in Rotterdam. These projects will not only popularize the concept of electrified transportation, but also resolve public concerns over vehicle safety, charging technology and local environment impact.

“We are very proud to be a part of the ‘75-EV-RO’ project and we are very confident in the performance of our electric vehicles. We expect that our cooperation with Rotterdam government will be a big success”

At the core of the e6 technology is BYD’s Iron Phosphate or “Fe” battery technology. The Fe battery boasts the highest safety, longest service life and most environmentally friendly rechargeable chemistry. Integrating the “Fe” battery, the e6 (a 5-seat crossover all-electric vehicle) can travel up to 300 kM in range per charge. The BYD e6 has been used as taxis in Shenzhen, China for over a year now and is referenced in the recent “BYD Fleet Summary” released April 29^th, 2011. The fleet of 50 e6 Shenzhen taxis, in service since May 2010, have now surpassed 3 million kilometers in cumulative fleet miles. The successful operation of the e6 taxis in Shenzhen for over a year now has proven it’s reliability according to BYD officials. “We are very proud to be a part of the ‘75-EV-RO’ project and we are very confident in the performance of our electric vehicles. We expect that our cooperation with Rotterdam government will be a big success”, said BYD’s Mr. Li.

“The Rotterdam Government has been committed to the development of cleaner transportation and aims to make Rotterdam a cleaner, greener and more healthy city of Europe. The ‘75-EV-RO’ is one of the hybrid/Electric vehicle pilot projects that we have in hand. We are looking forward to testing the e6 and think the e6 is a great choice for this project”, added Mrs. van Huffelen.

Link to the News

Mispricing

Solar firms hope for place in sun in Mideast

JD Power: Chinese Brands Narrow Gap In Quality

BYD Becomes Apple Supplier, Shares Rise

比亚迪：战略大调整后逐步步入正常轨迹

Charlie Munger on Berkshire's BYD Investment

LED Makers Climb as China Plans to Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs

BYD to build an EV plant in Argentina

BYD Chinese car maker, which also makes batteries, phone handsets and energy storage equipment makes another important step today in conquering world’s electronic vehicle market.

What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

王传福：比亚迪电动汽车倍受关注，公交电动化策略优先

王传福：该犯的错都已犯过了 2013年将重新进入腾飞

China's Largest and First Environmentally-friendly Battery Storage Station is in Service

Car rentals switch up several gears

Chinese company BYD will unveil its eBUS-12 full-sized single deck electric bus at Busworld in Kortrijk Belgium on 21 October 2011

Dalio Says `Nothing Surprising' About European Crisis

BYD responds to public concerns

BYD: What went wrong when everything looked so right?

BYD was once the star of the Chinese auto industry. BYD’s founder, Wang Chuanfu was said to be a combination of Jack Welch and Thomas Edison. His company, meanwhile, made bold predictions of becoming the largest Chinese auto manufacturer by 2015 and the largest in the world by 2025.

As Sales Slump, BYD Exec Says Auto Maker is Going Upscale

More In BYD

China's Plug-In Carmaker BYD Checks the Wires

叩关海外 比亚迪 (BYD) 储能电池日本市场受热捧

Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers On The Future Of Coal, Nuclear, And The Energy Industry

BYD-Daimler’s first car hits the patent office

China is player to watch in tech R&D

Wang Chuan Fu : Good time to buy BYD

SMRT in MOU to sell electric vehicles in Singapore

First BYD Electric Vehicles to Arrive in Nederlands

叩关海外比亚迪 (BYD) 储能电池日本市场受热捧