A report in the China Daily newspaper says that BYD is planning to set up a facility in California to make electric buses.
The report says that plans call for a California plant that will build up to 100 vehicles in 2014, 500 in ’15. It would be BYD’s first wholly owned manufacturing plant overseas, the report suggested, citing as source a company executive.
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The factory will be in California, in an exact location to be announced in March or April, Xinhua News Agency cited Li Ke, BYD senior vice-president, as saying.
According to the report, Li said managerial and other positions at the plant will be filled with local residents, but some of the parts and production lines used there will come from China.
BYD’s K9 electric buses, which have already passed road tests, will carry a price of $550,000 to $600,000 each. They will come to the US market in March and first be used at Apple Inc’s headquarters in Cupertino, California; at Los Angeles International Airport; and at Stanford University, Li said, according to the China Daily report.
