Warren Buffett has been pushing BYD’s wheelbarrow for some years and now the BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV uses China’s iron-phosphate batteries, with Buffett’s blessing.
The Chinese electric car specialist BYD has revealed one of the most powerful plug-in hybrid SUVs in the world, called the Tang. It can accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds putting it into supercar category and at the same time uses 2.0 liters of petrol per 100 km.
BYD Tang
If that isn’t enough, there will be an even faster Tang Ultimate Edition which can do the 100 km/h dash in 4.4 seconds – one tenth of a second faster than the V8 Cayenne Turbo. That is getting serious power to the ground.
The BYD battery pack is an advanced iron-phosphate battery that allows the vehicle a range of up to 80 km in electric driving mode before it needs the petrol engine.
The 18 kW/h battery can even act as a household emergency power supply, providing up to 3 kW of electricity at 220 volts in a blackout.
Backed by American billionaire Warren Buffett whose Berkshire Hathaway investment company holds a stake of almost 10 percent in the Hong Kong-based tech company, BYD is one of the world’s largest producers of batteries for consumer goods such as laptops and mobile phones.
The BYD Auto spin-off is China’s 15th largest car-maker and producer of the top-selling EV in China, the BYD Qin.
The plug-in hybrid has a 152 kW/320 Nm turbo-charged four-cylinder petrol engine and two 150 kW/200 Nm electric motors for a theoretical maximum power and torque output of 376 kW and 720 Nm.
The Tang has one electric motor driving the front wheels and another at the rear for a form of all-wheel drive.
The petrol engine is hooked up to a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission developed in house.
Tang comes in four driving modes – all electric, full electric/petrol power (Sport), range extender and front-wheel-drive hybrid.
BYD’s home city, Shenzhen, in Guangdong Province, is the latest major city to cap registrations of fossil-fuel powered cars in a bid to tackle choking pollution and traffic jams.
BYD may just have the market correct for the times in China. Warren Buffett is a savvy chap!
