Note to Congress: Before you drop $14 billion into the black hole of Detroit, read the article below

It appears in today's Wall Street Journal, and the first sentence reads as follows: "A Chinese auto maker [BYD] plans to unveil the country's first homegrown electric vehicle for the mass market, at least a year ahead of similar efforts around the world."

Breaking news: it happened today.

Wasn't it less than three weeks ago that I featured Wang Chuanfu, who founded BYD in 1995 at the age of 29 and intends to make it the world's largest car company by 2025, in a post headlined "The man who would be king — of cars?"?

Read Norihiko Shirouzu's WSJ story below.
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BYD to Introduce China's First Electric Car

A Chinese auto maker plans to unveil the country's first homegrown electric vehicle for the mass market, at least a year ahead of similar efforts around the world.

On Monday, BYD Co. plans to show reporters in Shenzhen the new F3DM [above and below], which runs off batteries that can be charged from a regular electrical outlet. BYD began marketing the F3DM this month to cab operators and other potential fleet customers, and plans to have it in showrooms by the end of this month, said Henry Li, a senior company executive. BYD plans to sell the car in the U.S. market as early as the second half of 2010.

The F3DM runs on batteries and is charged at a regular electrical outlet.

China's government intends to support the electric vehicle push through research-and-development subsidies for auto makers and tax breaks and other incentives for consumers, as well as with plans to build battery-charge stations and other public infrastructure. The government hasn't said how much it will spend.

Though essentially an electric car, the F3DM also has a small gasoline engine that is used to generate electricity if the battery runs dry. Some people question whether the leap to electric cars makes sense in China, in part because most of China's electricity comes from "dirty" coal-burning power plants.

BYD plans to sell as many as 10,000 F3DMs in 2009, according to Mr. Li. The car is to be priced at less than 150,000 yuan, or about $22,000, toward the low end of the price range for a typical midsize sedan in China.

General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. are both developing similar battery-powered cars. But Toyota won't launch its version until late 2009 and plans to sell it in the U.S. and Japan, not in China. GM is expected to launch its Chevy Volt in late 2010 in the U.S., but the company's financial struggles have left plans unclear. Nissan Motor Co., which is weighing the launch of an electric car in China as early as 2012, believes that battery-powered cars could account for as much as 30% of all automobile sales in China by 2020.

The city of Shenzhen, where BYD is headquartered, is expected to announce Monday that it is buying some 20 F3DMs.
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New York Times Op-Ed page columnist Thomas Friedman wrote yesterday, "The auto consultant John Casesa once noted that Detroit's management has gone from visionaries to operators to caretakers. I would say that they have now gone from caretakers to undertakers."

FunFact: "In September there was a remarkable endorsement of BYD when even as global stock markets were plunging, the canniest American investor of them all, Warren Buffet of Omaha, Nebraska, paid $230m (£155m) for a 10% stake in the Chinese company."

You could look it up.