Previously the company has projected it will become “China’s No. 1 automaker by 2015 and the world’s leading car maker by 2025,” but not wanting to bite off more than it can chew, it has scaled back its ambitious a few notches.

The automaker now wants to become a world-class fish in Hong Kong’s taxi pond. At present, BYD has only six electric e6 taxis running in Hong Kong, across the border from its Shenzhen, China, headquarters, but plans are to multiply this 833 times over in a short span of time.

“We expect to increase the number of e6 taxis in Hong Kong to 5,000 in three years,” Liu Xueliang, said general manager of BYD Asia Pacific sales, in an interview with Reuters.

Hong Kong Taxi & Public Light Bus Association said it is renting from BYD an initial fleet of 45 taxis for around $1,000 (USD) each per month.

In China, BYD sold about 1,700 e6 vehicles last year. They go for around $60,000 and are bought mainly by local governments and taxi companies wanting to engance their green credentials.

Hong Kong’s taxi fleet consists mostly of often LPG-powered Toyota Crowns. Last year, BYD announced plans to export 50 e6 taxis to London.

Reuters

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In addition to manufacturing electric transit buses, the company’s compact all-electric car, the e6, is also becoming a popular model for fleet purchases.

BYD recently announced that the Chinese city of Shenzhen placed an order for 500 of its e6 police cars. Late last year the city of Bogotá, Columbia, ordered just less than 50 of the e6 crossover sedans for use in a city taxi fleet.

In addition to the electric police cars, BYD says that the city of Shenzhen also has 300 of the e6 cars in service as taxis. That fleet of taxis has accumulated more than 18.6 million miles, with at least one e6 in the fleet registering 155,000 miles on the odometer according to BYD.

The company says in a release that the Chinese city is also planning to purchase an additional 500 e6 taxis, as well as adding 500 of BYD’s pure electric transit buses to its current 200 e-bus fleet. London-based greentomatocars and BYD signed a memorandum of understanding that BYD says will have 50 e6 taxis in operation by the second quarter of this year.

BYD says the e6 has a maximum speed of 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph), and a range of 300 kilometers (186 miles).

BYD

Autoblog Green

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This first South American, all-electric taxi fleet will be launching next month with 46 BYD e6 cross-over sedans. These units will be placed into taxi service as of Q1 2013 in the Colombian capital.

BYD Ltd and Praco Didacol (BYD’s Colombian distribution partner) held a press conference Wednesday Dec. 12 with BYD’s Chairman Chuanfu Wang for the announcement.

Ms. Stella Li, BYD senior vice president, says BYD hopes to triple the company’s growth and presence in Colombia by next year.

The district government authorized this scalable all-electric taxi pilot program in an effort to improve the air quality in Colombia’s dense cities.

In total, 49 BYD e6, 5-passenger, all-electric cross-over sedans received approval from the Colombia Ministry of Transportation to operate as taxis in the city of Bogotá.

When they start being used, BYD said they will be the most spacious and comfortable taxis in Colombia. BYD also says they are extremely quiet on roads and completely non-polluting (no direct emissions).

A measure was adopted by the Colombian Ministry of Environment in 2009 so that these types of vehicles could be imported with zero tax. Plus, electric cars in Bogotá do not have license plate restrictions like other petroleum vehicles.

“It is important that the capital city be the first to lead a project like this, because of its size and the demand. The idea is that this project can be replicated in other places in Colombia,” assured Marcela Bonilla, Sectorial Director of Urban Affairs for the Ministry of the Environment.

According to Susana Muhamad, District Secretary of Environment, “this project will permit us to analyze the behavior of the electric cars, with the purpose of reducing the dependence on fossil fuels.”

BYD’s EV vehicles have accumulated over 50 million kilometers (30 million miles) as of Dec 2012.

The company considers its market differentiator as being its long-cycle-life and environmentally-friendly Iron-Phosphate battery.

BYD Auto’s distributor in Colombia, Praco Didacol, has been in business in Colombia for over 95 years.

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