Unless I’m mistaken there are very few automakers right now who aren’t worried about the future. While most are faced with an uncertain future and desperately try to balance their accounts a rarer breed of Automaker exists. They’re not clamoring for Federal tax breaks and they’re not visiting the President to ask for more money. The workers for these automakers aren’t on strike. They’re not asking the Prime Minister for more wages, or moaning about outsourcing. And they don’t have showrooms full of vehicles the sales team just can’t shift. Granted, they don’t have many rights as workers and their government would probably balk at the idea of worker representatives or a union.

One particular company comes to mind when reading that description. While perhaps off the radar of many consumers, this company has the likes of GM, Ford, and Toyota fully in it’s sights. They already produce a fully road-working, commercially available plug in hyrbid, capable of as much as 40 miles on all electric power. And they sell at a cheaper price than the current Toyota Prius. Who is this mystery company? The company who Warren Buffet was so impressed by that his company invested a reported $232m in? Why, the Chinese company BYD.

_{BYD’s E6 electric car. Photograph by http://www.gist.org}

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