BYD Abandons F3e Battery Electric Vehicle

The BYD e6 Electric Vehicle








BYD has decided not to put the F3e EV into production due to the lack of an enabling environment for electric cars in China, according to a report in China Business News which cited Wang Jianjun, deputy general manager of BYD Automotive Sales Co Ltd.

The Shenzhen-based automaker was initially engaged in development of all-electric vehicles, but changed its mind after a market investigation and consultation with the dealers for everyone thought there were still problems with the supporting infrastructure and market environment at the moment and what the company needed were transitional products. It therefore created the F3DM, a plug-in hybrid compact sedan, Wan said.

BYD Co, backed by US billionaire Warren Buffet, also established three charging stations as part of a pilot program in Shenzhen in 2007. Ia Hipping, general manager of BYD Automotive Sales Co Ltd. said then commercial production of the F3E would be achieved in three years and the price would be controlled below 150,000 yuan ($22,400). However, the BYD F3DM was somehow launched first in December 2008 and the F3e was abandoned, and the reason is just as Wan said—a problem of ancillary environment. It is infeasible to extensively promote all-electric vehicles before the supporting infrastructure is well improved in the country.