Tag Archives: BYD
Chinese automakers struggle against global rivals
These should be good times for Chinese automakers as they prepare to show off their latest models at the Shanghai auto show.
Their home market is the world’s biggest and growing. But independent automakers such as Chery and Geely are being squeezed by bigger, richer global rivals including General Motors and Nissan that have moved into turf the Chinese makers considered their own: low-priced models for local tastes. Domestic brands account for less than half of their own market.
“At a time when the Chinese were getting ready to move upscale, they have come under siege in their area of traditional strength,” said Michael Dunne, president of Dunne & Co., a research firm. “They didn’t see that coming and it hurt.”
Fighting back, Chery, Geely and local rivals Great Wall and BYD are scaling down ambitious expansion plans and focusing on improving quality. Some hired managers or designers with experience at Mercedes Benz and other foreign producers. Others aim at specialties such as SUVs, minivans for export to other developing countries and electric buses.
This week, Chery Inc. announced a corporate overhaul after sales plummeted 10 percent last year. The company said it will shrink its range of 20 models to 11 or 12.
BYD Co., in which American investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corp. owns a 10 percent stake, plans to display a new SUV and its Si Rui sedan at Auto Shanghai 2013, which opens Sunday.
The company, China‘s leading maker of electric cars, blamed intense competition for a 94 percent plunge in profit last year and says the midsize Si Rui should help to drive a rebound.
Great Wall Motors Co. plans to debut two SUVs, a pickup and a sedan among 23 models on display. Last year, the company was China‘s top-selling independent automaker on the strength of its popular SUVs, which are exported to 80 countries.
China‘s failure to follow its neighbors Japan and South Korea in creating at least one global auto brand — even after this country passed the United States in 2009 as the biggest auto market — has frustrated communist leaders.
They see auto making as a national priority — the “industry of industries” that supports higher-paid jobs in fields from manufacturing to electronics to chemicals. They have spent
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/bq2fIrU_Sl8/
Profit At Buffett-Backed Chinese Automaker BYD Tanked 94% In '12; Reversal Expected
By Russell Flannery, Forbes Staff
Profit at BYD, the Chinese manufacturer of autos, batteries and phone components 10% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, plunged by 94% to 81 million yuan, or $13 million, in 2012, the company said this evening. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
As Detroit Struggles, a New Auto Emerges
By Sara E. Murphy, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
After a 70-year hibernation, Detroit Electric lumbered from its cave on Tuesday and tossed its Stratoliner hat into the electric-vehicle ring. What was old is new again, and Detroit Electric might just breathe new life into an ailing city and an uncertain industry.
A rose by any other name …
It’s hard not to glance at Tesla Motors to see her reaction, considering that Detroit Electric showed up to the party wearing basically the same dress. Detroit Electric‘s first product to market will be a limited-edition, two-seater sports car that will cost “in the neighborhood” of $135,000. That sounds a lot like Tesla’s now-discontinued Roadster!
But the similarities don’t end there. Detroit Electric will use Lotus platforms for at least its first two vehicles. What other car was based on Lotus’ Elise platform? That’s right: Tesla’s Roadster.
So on the face of things, it looks as though Tesla’s dominance of the high-end EV market may have just come under serious threat. Interestingly, though, Tesla’s shares are trading noticeably up since Detroit Electric‘s announcement. Investors seem encouraged, not panicked. Why might that be?
While Detroit Electric is starting with a sexy new sports car, it plans to offer a “diverse family of all-electric production cars,” which seems to suggest that the company won’t confine itself to the expensive top of the pyramid. EVs’ success will live and die on the development of a battery-charging infrastructure to support them, and such development will be spurred only by broad adoption of EVs. Investors may be betting that high-end purveyors like Tesla will be buoyed by Detroit Electric‘s potential offering of more affordable vehicles.
Pistols or swords?
Detroit Electric plans to announce “a major partnership with a global carmaker” at the Shanghai Motor Show on April 20. The company’s CEO of North America operations, Don Graunstadt, said this mysterious partner is a “much larger Chinese OEM,” or original equipment manufacturer.
I can’t help speculating that the obvious suspect is BYD. If that were the case, it would constitute Warren Buffett‘s indirect throwing down of the gauntlet to Elon Musk. Pistols at dawn, gentlemen! Still, as my colleague John Rosevear astutely cautions, “There are probably several other possible candidates, and one should be prepared to be surprised.”
The economic ecosystem
It’s worth pulling back a bit for a broader view. In a brilliant recent article, Bloomberg New Energy Finance Chief Executive Michael Liebreich laid out his case for analyzing our energy future in terms of a complex ecosystem. As I mentioned, EVs are dependent on infrastructure development. They’re also complementary to renewable-energy deployment, particularly solar. As Liebreich observed in his article, “The value of a solar rooftop in a world of electric vehicles is very different from the value of the same solar rooftop in a world without.”
Tesla has a partnership with SolarCity — another Elon Musk vehicle — to provide Tesla drivers with solar-fueled battery-recharging stations. SolarCity also announced a deal …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
China's Auto Industry Eyes Subsidies For Electric, Hybrid Cars
By Simon Montlake, Forbes Staff
Beijing‘s noxious smog is a reminder of why China needs to step up investments in clean energy. This includes promoting electric and hybrid cars as an alternative to gas-guzzling cars idling on clogged city roads. Yet for all the subsidies lavished on automakers in this carbon-free niche, none have made any serious headway. The much-praised Toyota Prius is supposedly sold in China, but I’ve never spotted one on the road in Beijing. As for BYD, the domestic battery maker turned automaker, its electric cars have yet to find a market outside of public procurement in its home base of Shenzhen. It suffered a bout of terrible publicity last year when a battery-powered e6 taxi caught fire in a collision. Relatives of the dead driver later sued the company, which claimed that the car wasn’t at fault. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Online Gambling Now Legal in Nevada (ZNGA, IGT, BYI, BYD, WMS, SHFL)
Filed under: Technology
The governor of Nevada signed legislation yesterday legalizing online gambling in his state. New Jersey‘s governor recently vetoed a similar bill but said he could sign one if properly amended.
Shares of Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) are reacting well to the Nevada law, but other gambling technology stocks, like International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT), Bally Technologies Inc. (NYSE: BYI), Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD), WMS Industries Inc. (NYSE: WMS), and Shuffle Master Inc. (NASDAQ: SHFL), aren’t getting the message.
Bally, IGT and Shuffle Master have received licenses to operate online gambling in Nevada, and Zynga filed an application for a license in December. The biggest payday could come for Zynga and the others if they can pair up with the big casino operators, most of which have come around to support online gambling over the past couple of years.
Shares of Zynga are up about 4.6% today at $3.10 in a 52-week range of $2.09 to $15.91.
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Casinos, Internet Tagged: BYD, BYI, IGT, SHFL, WMS, ZNGA
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