Basic design set for new BYD-Daimler electric car

The Wall Street Journal - Chinese battery and auto producer BYD Co. lost a lot of luster last year. But the company has quietly, and without any public announcement, cleared one important milestone: Deciding on the key styling and design elements of the first electric car it is producing in partnership with Germany's Daimler AG.

A person close to the BYD-Daimler venture, which the two companies announced last year, said over the weekend that the joint design team working at BYD’s headquarters in the southern China city of Shenzhen "fixed" the styling of the brand's first all-electric battery car in early December and passed it onto the engineering team to finish the car's development. The move in the auto industry is typically called "styling freeze," and it refers to a stage in the car-development process where styling and rough engineering specifications are set firmly.

The knowledgeable individual said BYD and Daimler are aiming to finish development of the all-electric car by the end of 2012 and make the car available for private buyers in China in 2013.

The progress is a key milestone for the Chinese-German joint venture and marks a rare bright spot last year for BYD, which is part-owned by Mid American Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

BYD's earnings in the last half of 2010 were down sharply as sales for its gasoline-fueled cars in China took a nosedive. It has also delayed the much-hyped launch in California of one of its all-electric battery cars by nearly one year until later this year to redesign the car. And, in October last year, China's central government ordered the company to surrender land for a new assembly plant in Xian in a zoning dispute, a decision analysts say will likely stunt its growth.

According to the knowledgeable individual, the styling of the new BYD-Daimler electric car has gone through many iterations, with an array of ideas proposed mostly by automotive stylists from Daimler's Mercedes-Benz unit. The individual said the styling the two companies chose in the end was “more practical than futuristic."

A Daimler spokeswoman said the joint Daimler-BYD electric car project is "on track," and the companies are set to launch the first product under the joint green-car brand in 2013. She declined to elaborate further.

Even though some people at Daimler were gunning for more futuristic and edgy styling ideas, BYD management have pushed for a more conservative look in an effort to appeal to mainstream consumers.

Another individual with knowledge of the styling of the new electric car told The Wall Street Journal last year that it looks like "half sedan and half crossover." He said the vehicle had to become taller to accommodate its beefy lithium-ion battery pack.

Both individuals said photos of the jointly-developed car had leaked out to a Chinese media outlet last year. One of them described the photos as "authentic," saying they showed the design of the BYD-Daimler car but that it was not the final one. "It showed a car that was a few phases before the design freeze," the individual said.