E-MAIL
BYD Co. will assemble electric buses in the central China city of Wuhan to win the local government"s order for electric vehicles, according to Chinese media. The automaker"s plan to build a 3 billion yuan plant ($480 million) was disclosed after BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu met Wuhan city officials last week, reported Changjiang Daily, a newspaper run by the city government.
The plant initially will build BYD"s K9 electric bus with an annual output of 1,000 vehicles. Under a second phase, the plant will assemble BYD"s other electric vehicles, according to the newspaper.
Hangzhou will become the sixth city in China to land a BYD bus plant.
BYD builds already its K9 buses in the central China city of Changsha. It also has signed agreements with local governments to assemble the buses in Nanjing, Tianjin, Dalian and Hangzhou. Chinese cities are reluctant to procure an automaker"s EVs for their public transport fleets unless the vehicles are built locally.
BYD, a private Chinese automaker partly owned by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, is headquartered in the south China city of Shenzhen and is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. The company produces a mix of gasoline-powered vehicles, plug-in hybrid cars and electric vehicles.