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SHENZHEN / AP
The Chinese automaker that sold more electric cars last year than Tesla, Nissan or GM is taking a back road into the American market on a battery-powered bus.
Detouring around the cost and risk of consumer sales, BYD Co. has quietly built a U.S. business supplying rechargeable buses to environmentally-minded transit agencies. Its factory north of Los Angeles, opened in 2013, is on track to deliver 300 this year.
The company has dipped its toe into the U.S. auto market by launching test fleets of plug-in electric taxis in Chicago and New York City.
Consumer sales are coming but BYD has yet to decide when, said Michael Austin, its vice president for the United States. He said it might start developing a sales network in the next two years.
“We have the manufacturing scale that can drive the cost to a point where we can bring vehicles to export markets including the United States, Latin America and Europe that will be game-changing,” said Austin at BYD’s headquarters in this southern city adjacent to Hong Kong.
Once that comes, “we get brand recognition because people already are riding our buses,” said Austin. BYD is part of an emerging wave of Chinese companies that stand to profit from global demand for solar and wind power, electric cars and other clean and renewable energy.