Warren Bufett, what does he know that we don't?

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett sees a profitable future in electric vehicles, which is a strong endorsement for the up-and-coming vehicle segment. MidAmerican Holdings, a subsidiary of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is buying a 10% stake in Chinese rechargeable battery and electric car firm BYD (an acronym for "Build Your Dreams") for $230 million.

"Mr. Wang Chuanfu (the chairman of BYD) has an extraordinary managerial record, and we welcome the opportunity to work with him," said Buffett in a statement.

The fast-growing, Hong Kong-based firm is working on electric hybrid cars to introduce in the Chinese market next year and hopes to sell them in Europe and Israel in 2010. The cars will require nine hours to fully charge their lithium-ion batteries, though they can reach an 80% charge in just 15 minutes. Fully charged, the cars should have a range of about 190 miles.

David Sokol, chairman of MidAmerican Holdings, said in a statement that technology being developed by companies like BYD will be a key part of the future of eco-friendly technology and environmental responsibility, as well as tackling the climate crisis.

While American response to BYD's, um, interesting automotive designs could generously be described as lukewarm, a winning electric vehicle could strike paydirt in other parts of the world, if not the U.S.

Every day EV News 10/30/08

Is BYD coming to Portland,Oregon?

One of the world's largest battery maker, Shenzhen China-based BYD, wants to leverage their expertise manufacturing lithium iron phosphate batteries into building plug-in hybrid and all-electric automobiles.

Their planned all-electric model will have top speed of 100 mph and with range of 186 miles per battery charge that can be recharged enough times to drive about 373,000 miles.

Portland and Oregon are not Detroit in terms of density of existing automobile manufacturing plants but we do have Freightliner trucks,Monaco Coach and rail car manufacturing expertise with Gunderson.

But Portland has something no other US city: a transportation vision and track record of innovation and sustainability. And PGE that is interested in promoting the use of plug-in hybrids and al-electrical vehicle by investing in the public charging stations.

To BYD, I mentioned our early support for Flexcar (now Zipcar) and that in addition to placing charging stations on the street we could include them in our Smart Park garages. We also discussed testing all-electric or plug in hybrids with taxi companies with the charging station at tax waiting zones and testing BYD's cars as part of the city government fleet.

The auto-shopping Web site Cars.com recently released its "Green Index" ranking the top markets for hybrid-fuel vehicles. Portland ranked second. Nearly 4.8 percent of all new car searches on the site were for hybrids, coming in behind San Francisco's 5.6 percent.

The Portland Business Journal reported that Portland's first "earth friendly vehicle" dealership, EcoMotion, opened in September on Sandy Boulevard. The company has sold 308 vehicles -- about 60 of which were all electric, said Steve Scharer, EcoMotion's general manager.

The city already has an early-start on the necessary infrastructure for electric vehicles. Portland General Electric hosts an electric-car charging station outside its offices at the Portland World Trade Center.

BYD was brought to our attention by Jin Lan, a China business consultant based in Vancouver, Wash and his partner in recruiting BYD, Merle Greenstein, and chairman of Tualatin-based International Development Association.

Also reported in the Portland Business Journal, BYD Auto is a subsidiary of BYD Co., the world's biggest maker of mobile-phone batteries. BYD broadened into automating in 2003, when it bought Shaanxi Qinchuan Auto Co., according to the Portland Business Journal. "They want to find an area to test on 50 cars," Greenstein said. "I sat down with them and convinced them the best place to do this is Portland, Oregon." Josh Thomas, a Port spokesman, said port officials are meeting with BYD. The port already has a robust auto import business: Its three auto import facilities handled nearly 450,000 autos in 2007. Each vehicle brings an estimated $318 economic impact to the region.