Warren Buffett takes charge

[JAllen]

I put about 2% of my liquid security net worth into BYD and am hoping to pull a Phillip Fisher with it and attempt to never sell.  It was only a 3-4 Billion dollar company that has the potential to become one of/the largest companies in the world, especially if they develop the best lithium battery. 

 

Munger doesn't say things like that about very many people/companies!

 

They file complete annual reports just like American companies.  I found them through the Hong Kong stock exchange.  It takes a few steps but is definitely doable.

[basl1]

I was very impressed by this car at the Berkshire meeting

Well worth pursuing. Anyone with more thoughts on how to buy shares?

 

[DCG]

They can be bought on the pink sheets under BYDDF.pk or dyddy.pk (1211.hk as well). It's up over 200% already this year, so it's tough to say how great of a buy it is at the current price.

[nodnub]

I was very impressed by this car at the Berkshire meeting

Well worth pursuing. Anyone with more thoughts on how to buy shares?

 

 

http://cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/index.php?topic=467" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic" 4005#msg4005

[calonego]

I found the build quality of the cars to be far sub-standard.

They seemed very light and poorly built, even relative to an early '90's Hyundai...

The paint was incredibly poor, there were a fair number of particles in it... panels didn't line up well, support structure was very flimsy. They can obviously build a cheap car, but it seemed far below quality of GM's worst offering IMO. One I examined was a concept, one was an off-the-line production model.

 

Truthfully it reminds me of early American Auto's - hand assembled and somewhat uniform components (ie people bend and smash the parts into place/fit). Sounds like the operation of manufacturing the cars is reminiscent of say the River Rouge plant Henry Ford built... iron/rubber/polymer in - car out.

 

Warren may be getting one, but I'm sure he'll stick to driving a Caddy. It's many, many years out before BYD could sell any quantity of safe cars to Americans, but the Chinese sure seem to like them!

Dave Sokol seemed far more concerned with the batteries/electrical aspects of BYD over the cars.

[pohick]

(1) hydroelectricity, where you pump the water back up during the night when the cost is low; (2) under ground air compression.  I don't know much about (2) but (1) is clearly wasteful and doesn't seem all that cheap.

 

i dunno, our (D)  lil ole bath facility ain't so bad

http://www.dom.com/about/stations/hydro/bath.jsp

 

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/11/110481/IRReferenceBookFebruary2009.pdf

[claphands22]

I suggest watching Who Killed he Electric Car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F

 

It took me a while to watch this movie because of my own biases. I eventually watched it and realized there were a lot of Munger-type biases that killed the electric car.

 

After thinking about the movie, I believe electric cars have a high probability of succeeding in the next 6-10 years. If electric cars become the new norm, that means public utility companies will become the new gas stations.  The most important component of the electric car will be the battery; therefore, who ever has the best battery technology will probably be a leader in electric vehicles. Charlie Munger has said Wang Chuanfu, the CEO of BYD, is the combination of Jack Welch and Thomas Edison.

 

With Berkshire's stake in BYD and controlling interesting in MidAmerica - I wonder what kind of predictions do Munger and Buffett have for the electric car.

[pohick]

elec cars make some sense for urban use

 

i was about to get a Sparrow

(park in the motorcycle space and go in the HOV lane)