Tag Archives: F3e

BYD’s Electric Car Technology

BYD Auto, offspring of Chinese cell phone lithium-ion battery giant, will soon be releasing two electric car drivetrains.  One will be the fully electric F3e technology, which will allow for a top speed of over 150km/h, a 13.5s 0-100 km/h acceleration, 300km / per charge range, and and a battery life-cycle of about 600,000km. This stems from their superior Fe battery technology. The Fe-battery has such innovative advantages as low cost, zero pollution, zero noise and recyclable. It can deliver voltage twice as high as a standard Ni-MH battery, while costing less than comparable batteries.
Fe Battery

BYD is also making a huge investment into range extended vehicles, notably the BYD DM (Dual Mode).  The BYD site seems to try to distinguish this as something more than an electric vehicle with a gasoline range extender, but they are not very clear. This is how BYD describes their technology:

As early as in 2003, BYD started DM electric vehicles project, on which currently 500 auto engineers are working. DM stands for Dual Mode and BYD DM (Dual Mode) electric vehicle combines a solely electric vehicle system and a hybrid power system. The DM hybrid system is an advanced technology which integrates two hybrid powers to control electricity generator and electric motor, thus not only massively reducing fuel consumption and emission but also enhancing the power and operation performance. In addition, it enables dual energy supplies via both recharging and refueling, which makes up the dual mode hybrid system in the real sense. If we call an electric driven system “EV” and the hybrid electric system “HEV”, then BYD DM should be named “EV + HEV”. This system is bound to replace the traditional electric-gasoline hybrid system, becoming the most popular and advanced new energy hybrid system in the world.

F6DM

Source: BYD Auto

BYD: China’s Sleeping Giant

BYD (Build Your Dreams) Auto is a Chinese automaker that was founded in 2003 as a branch of BYD Limited, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries.  With this established background in lithium-ion technology, BYD is ambitiously planning on releasing some of the most viable, reasonably priced electric vehicles ever.  Their first production electric car will be the plug-in hybrid, F3DM.

F3DM

The F3DM (Dual Mode) hybrid is a mid-sized, Toyota Carolla like, sedan with a range of 62 miles (100 km) in the all-electric mode and 267 miles (430 km) total. The vehicle is supposedly going to be for sale in China as early as next month, November 2008, and available to the European market in 2010.  It was rumored the car could be priced as low as $15,000, but more recent reports state it will be closer to $25,000.  This is still a great price for what could be the the first ever, mass produced plug-in hybrid. (Wikipedia, BYD F3DM)

Their larger hybrid is the F6DM, which is a Toyota Camry clone stylistically, and has nearly identical performance specs as the F3DM .  BYD is obviously playing it safe by using proven and popular body styles that will make these cars indiscernible from regular, internal combustion vehicles.
F6DM

BYD has been making so much news lately, it is hard to tell what is fabricated and what is backed by solid evidence. This is mostly due to the enigmatic nature of Chinese corporations. The strongest argument for BYD’s legitimacy could be from the fact that Warren Buffet, legendary investor, and his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, made a bold investment of $230 million in BYD auto last month. Portland, Oregon is also showing interest in hosting a BYD headquarters in America. The commissioner is showing a keen interest in BYD’s upcoming all-electric model, the F3E, which could have a range of 186 miles, a top speed of 100 mph, and a battery life of over 370,000 miles. The F3E will look identical to the F3DM. BYD also plans to sell some electric models to Israel, which is currently installing a countrywide electric vehicle recharging grid as part of Project Better Place.

This is all exciting news for the electric auto industry. China is making a statement that it wants to be a leader in green technology. Hopefully, they keep up their incredible pace, so that the rest of the world will have to follow.