BYD starting to make electric cars

When it comes to making cars, China is king. We’re talking the world’s largest car market, with over a hundred individual marques. So why is it that there are virtually zero Chinese car manufactures selling cars in the U.S. aka the world’s other largest car market?

So far, China’s “Big Four” (well, the four most visible to those outside of China) have made and broken promises of bringing their vehicles to the North American market. Brilliance, Chery, Nanjing and Geely have all backed down from their plans to open dealerships and factories stateside. So far, not a single car from China's major automakers has touched down on U.S. soil outside a motor show.

But BYD did not start to make electric cars. Instead it started manufacturing internal combustion engine cars. They've bought an ailing state owned company, and started manufacturing the Flyer, a small car that made decent sales but already started declining in early 2000. So the company invested in a more ambitious project with the output of the BYD F3 sedan. The sedan model in general is very popular in China because that kind of car gave someone a social proof of success. The F3 sold very good topping 150 000 units / year. This flagship product made BYD know to the local market and some press mentions oversea.

Strengthened by this commercial success, BYD Auto, the subsidiary of BYD, put effort into developing other make, even in some niche like the F8 coupé. The BYD F6 which is a more luxurious F3, the famous BYD F1 later named F0 because of a conflict with the racing event.