China’s leading battery and auto maker BYD Co. Germany’s Daimler AG announced on Thursday a 50-50-owned new joint venture to mass produce an electric car in China.
Daimler and BYD plan to invest 600 million Yuan ($88 million, €71 million) in the joint venture called Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Ltd.
Daimler is to bring “know-how in car architecture and security” to the venture, while BYD will contribute “its competence in batteries and propulsion system for electric cars.
The two companies had signed a memorandum of understanding on the venture in March.
The Daimler executive said the new joint venture might display a prototype of the jointly-developed electric car as early as the Paris Auto Show in October.
Backed by Warren Buffett, BYD began mass production of the F3DM – world’s first plug-in hybrid car in 2008. Chinese company plans to start selling the E6 electric car in the U.S. this year and in Europe next year.
Daimler’s electric-car strategy includes large-scale production of an electric version of its Smart ForTwo starting in 2012. The company began assembling about 1,000 units of the urban two-seater in November 2009. Daimler will make lithium-ion automotive power packs in a joint venture set up in late 2008 with Evonik Industries AG, Germany’s largest specialty-chemicals maker.
