BYD EV Will Not Be

The long acclaimed electric vehicle to be built for the Chinese market by local manufacturer BYD will no longer hit the market by mid-2010, after the carmaker / battery manufacturer plans to the a more cautios approach to the new market segment.

According to Bloomberg, the e6 electric car will not enter mass production, but will only be built in a limited run of 100 units, to be used as taxis in the city of Shenzhen. Depending on how they perform and the success they have, the EV will, or will not, turn production version.

It's not yet clear if this is a decision taken solely by BYD, or with the help of new found partner Daimler. The two sides announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding earlier this month, for the co-development of electric vehicles in China.

The current decision may also affect BYD's plans to launch its e6 electric car in Europe in early 2011 and in the US in 2010. The new approach may not affect the release of the others models in Europe, most likely hybrids.

Meanwhile, BYD posted 1.46 billion yuan ($214 million) earnings for Q4, nearly doubling the initial forecast of 891 million yuan. In the end of 2009, BYD raised its target for 2010 to 800,000 vehicles, almost double the size of the volume registered in 2009.

Not far fetched, BYD believes, considering it is playing the game on a market which became the world's largest auto market last year, leaping 46 percent to 13.6 million vehicles.