AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
By Scott Doggett October 21, 2011
Troubled Chinese battery producer and automaker BYD Co. will launch its North American operations on Monday with the grand opening of its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles. The company said the facility will bring an estimated 150 green-collar engineering and management jobs to the city. Highlighting the event will be a signing of a pact with Hertz in which BYD is to provide electric shuttle buses to the rental-car agency for service at Los Angeles International Airport. The company hopes to establish itself in the United States as an electric vehicle specialist and in addition to the Hertz shuttle will be showing a battery-electric SUV, the e6 (above), that it intends to market here.
The developments come at time when the once-soaring Shenzhen-based company appears to be running low on funds. Warren Buffett-backed BYD has seen its net profits crash from 3.79 billion yuan ($595 million) in 2009 to 2.52 billion yuan ($395 million) in 2010 and to 275 million yuan ($43 million) for the first half of this year. The company's Chinese automobile business has accounted for much of the slide. In 2009 BYD sold 446,500 vehicles, or twice the number than the previous year. Last year BYD sold 519,800 vehicles, well short of the goal of 800,000 sales the company had set for itself. Vehicle sales for the first half of this year fell off pace again, at 232,400, and BYD has said it expects sales to remain slow through the second half amid weak consumer confidence.
Meanwhile, the company’s operating costs have been steadily increasing while profit has been slipping – falling from 8.59 billion yuan ($1.34 billion) in 2009 to just 2.95 billion yuan ($460 million) for the first half of this year. Rising labor, research and administrative costs contributed to the automaker's declining performance. What's more, it's unclear what product or products are likely to contribute to reversal of BYD's recent slide. BYD Auto Co.'s revenue so far has mostly stemmed from sales in China of the F3 sedan, an obvious knockoff of the Toyota Corolla. While the company has plans to sell both an all-electric sedan, and the e6 electric SUV in the United States and China, market analysts say doubts remain about acceptance of expensive electric cars from BYD by consumers in both countries.
Scott Doggett: is an AutoObserver.com Associate Editor.
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