BYD Chairman calls for green car purchase subsidies

Sep. 9, 2009 (China Knowledge) - Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD Co<1211>, China’s largest rechargeable battery maker and a well-known automobile producer, has urged the government to offer consumer incentives and subsidies for private purchases of all-electric battery-powered cars and other new energy vehicles.

Wang Sunday said at an industry conference that high costs and a lack of aid from the government have kept BYD from making a plug-in hybrid car available to private buyers.

Wang also revealed that U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet intends to raise his shareholding in BYD. In September 2008, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co, a unit of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, agreed to buy 225 million BYD shares at HK$8 apiece. The U.S.-based company now holds a 9.89% stake in BYD, and has reaped US$1.05 billion in paper profits on the investment.

BYD announced last week that its first-half net profit surged 98% from RMB 595 million in the first half of 2008 to RMB 1.18 billion in the first half of 2009, mainly fueled by success in the auto business. In the first six months of this year, the company's total turnover was RMB 16.13 billion, up 30% from RMB 12.39 billion a year earlier. Its auto unit’s turnover was RMB 8.88 billion for the period, up 133% from a year earlier.