BYD may bring electric minivan to U.S. this year

Forget gasoline. For that matter, forget cars. Chinese automaker BYD may skip both in bringing the first Chinese vehicles to the U.S.A. They may come as  electric-powered minivans or crossovers.

That's what's seeping out of the Beijing auto show from the Associated Press.  The five-seater from BYD, the automaker that counts Warren Buffett as an investor and supposedly stands for "Build Your Dreams," could be on sale later this year. Others say BYD is planning to go ahead with just bringing an electric car to the U.S., not necessarily the crossover.

Either way, the basic idea is sound:

 If China could leapfrog gas engines and come straight to the U.S. with electrics, it would avoid the cutthroat competition for conventional gas-powered cars that has cut down so many promising automakers in the past. Consumers might overlook a few superficial quality flaws if they could get a good, high-tech electric.

Meanwhile, electric cars are all the rage in China right now. Daimler is going ahead with plans to build electric vehicles with BYD. And Nissan megaboss Carlos Ghosn is even talking about building its electric Leaf cars in China, the Detroit News reports.