I just read this great article in Fortune Magazine. It describe the story of an entrepreneur who started a business in 1995.
This entrepreneur decided to get into the auto business in 2003 (just 6 years ago) and is as we speak selling a plugin electric car that gets more range per charge than the Chevy Volt (and Prius plugin edition) and sells for half the price… and did this all in just the past 6 years starting with no auto industry experience.
Turns out this caught the eye of Warren Buffet who recently bought 10% of the company.
The following story from Fortune Magazine is a must read
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/index.htm
I’d love to your thoughts on this article. Feel free to post them below.
I have read the article and felt thrilled. Great success story. Seems to be that BYD will be known by much more people in the very near future.
Taking into consideration of the increasing need for mobility and the trend of being more wireless, I believe that the biggest bottleneck in todays cellphone (more severe for smartphones) and laptop technology is the battery life. Also, the success of the emerging electric car market heavily depends on the improvements in the battery technology.
In the context of increasing sensitivity in environmental issues both in the eyes of governments and consumers all around the world, adressing this critical problem in a cost effective way is the main competitive advantage of BYD.
The other advantages that I think BYD has are:
– low cost but dedicated and competitive workforce (research team)
– high technology and strong know-how
– being one of the first movers in the market
– effective and strategic leadership
In my opinion, the most important strategic movement of BYD is entering the automobile industry in 2003. Giving the decision of capitalising on the know-how in battery technology, in the emerging electric car market is a great example of long term thinking.
Thanks a lot for sharing this great article.