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.
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