Detroit 2010: BYD e6 to reach U.S. in 2010

BYD Auto, China’s fourth-largest carmaker, announced some ambitious plans today at the Detroit show. The most noteworthy: It’ll sell an electric car in the United States this year. That’s right, you should be able to take delivery of a roadworthy Chinese electric vehicle in 2010.

The e6 is about the same length and width as a Honda Civic, but it’s significantly taller, almost giving it the look of a first-generation Honda Odyssey. Performance clearly isn’t the 5060-pound, five-passenger car’s strong suit, as the top speed is quoted at 87 mph and 0-to-60-mph acceleration is Hummer H1-like, estimated at “less than 14 seconds.” But quickness clearly isn’t the e6′s focus. Two motors combine to make 268 hp and 406 lb-ft of readily available torque.

BYD’s press conference was highlighted by short, teleprompter-free speeches by two BYD officials and a slightly annoyed-looking Chu Maoming, deputy consul general of the People’s Republic of China. Henry Li, a BYD general manager, informed listeners in Detroit that BYD aims to be the number-one Chinese automaker in the world by 2015 and the top carmaker on planet earth—ahead of Toyota, General Motors, and all others—in 2025. This might be plausible. Sfter all, as a BYD video pointed out, “the greatest sincerity makes best services.” BYD videos also illustrated a somewhat creepy “BYD future village” with abundant “charging poles” powered by solar energy.

BYD was founded only 15 years ago and is heavily backed by American investor Warren Buffet. The company already sells the e6 in China and launched the F3DM, a plug-in hybrid that’s also scheduled to reach the States, in China in late 2008. Learn more about BYD in Automobile Magazine’s interview of BYD founder Wang Chuanfu here.

-Rusty Blackwell