BYD to start selling electric cars in Europe next year

Shanghai, March 8 (Gasgoo.com) Chinese automaker BYD Co. plans to start selling electric and hybrid cars in western Europe next year to cash in on rising demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, Bloomberg reported today. This move is to follow its U.S. sales which will start later this year.

The first batch of BYD models to hit the European market will include the E6 electric car, said company spokesman Paul Lin. The carmaker, based in southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and 10% owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., may finally design and build cars in Europe.

As the fastest-growing Chinese automaker in 2009, BYD plans to begin selling its electric cars in the U.S. later this year and then in Europe next year as consumers seek to curb spending on gasoline and reduce emissions. The company will soon start selling the E6 model in its home market.

BYD is also teaming up with Daimler AG to develop an electric vehicle to be sold in China, they said last week. That model may be sold overseas in the future, Lin said today.

In May 2009, BYD signed an electric-vehicle deal with Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen. They two companies will cooperate in areas including hybrid cars and lithium battery-powered electric vehicles.

BYD aims to export up to 10% of the 800,000 vehicles it expects to produce and sell this year, a sharp increase from last year when it exported about 2.2% of its 450,000 vehicles sold.