Category: Minority Stock Positions

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD has delivered 20 pure electric buses to CUTCSA, Uruguay’s largest bus operator.

The buses will be put into operation on two bus routes in the central area of the capital to replace existing diesel buses and actively promote the electrification process of the country’s buses.

BYD and CUTCSA collaboration goes back to 2016, under then President of Uruguay, Mr. Tabare Vazquez, the two parties signed a lease agreement for the country’s first pure electric bus. The operation of the bus exceeds 150,000 kilometers, and has carried more than 500,000 passengers. Its solid operating performance is the main reason for order of 20 buses.

In addition to the bus, about 60 BYD pure electric taxis e5 and e6 are also put in operation locally.

BYD’s new energy product footprint in South America includes Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Argentina.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway and BYD, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell a stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD SkyRail São Paulo and São Paulo Metro formally signed a contract on April 27th for BYD to provide its SkyRail for the Line 17 (Gold Line) project.

This marks BYD’s second major collaborative project in Brazil following the company’s SkyRail line in the city of Salvador.

As the provider of this integrated solution, BYD will provide Line 17 with an entire suite of products and services, including 14 fleets of 5-vehicle trains, switches, conductive rails, UTO-level signal system, central control system, engineering vehicles, vehicle washing machines, and technical services, including engineering integration, installation, debugging and training.

Designed to solve urban traffic congestion, BYD’s SkyRail is a straddle-type monorail system with an investment of 5 billion RMB, developed by a dedicated R&D team of more than 1,000 following five years of research and development. The SkyRail brings lower costs, a shorter construction period and greater terrain adaptability when compared to competing technologies, while also being energy efficient, emitting zero emissions and operating quietly.

The first phase of the Line 17 project will extend from São Paulo’s Congonhas Airport to other central parts of the city, connecting vital business districts, the University of São Paulo, and densely populated areas in the city’s east. With a total length of 17.7 kilometers upon completion, the Gold Line will connect with Line 1 (Blue), Line 4 (Yellow), Line 5 (Lilac), and Line 9 (Emerald).

According to Tyler Li, Country Manager of BYD Brazil, Line 17 is designed to reach a daily flow of 250,000 passengers, and the interval between departures can be as rapid as 80 seconds. As such, these parameters necessitate high requirements for the project’s technology and operations system.

As the largest city in South America, São Paulo is both Brazil’s vibrant economic center and a critical logistics hub. Congonhas Airport, as one of the three major commercial airports in the city, became the second busiest airport in Brazil with nearly 187,000 flights and 13.67 million passengers in 2008. Due to its location in central São Paulo, the high volume of passengers and the density of vehicles in the area often contribute to severe road congestion. The completion of Line 17 is expected to significantly alleviate the pressure on road traffic between Congonhas Airport and other sections of the city.

On January 3, 2020, BYD was granted a construction permission for Salvador’s SkyRail project.

BYD’s ability to win the bid was driven by its expertise in providing an integrated solution, including the vehicles, tracks, stations and automatic control of communication signal systems; and ability to provide tailor-made solutions based on different terrains and localities. It was also underscored by BYD possessing its own intellectual property for these solutions, allowing the company to provide an effective and specialized rail transit system.

With Brazil as a starting point, BYD looks to further service South America and make a strong impact on the construction of urban rail transit worldwide. BYD’s Latin American market is rapidly expanding, and other BYD solutions such as its pure electric buses, taxis and trucks are successfully servicing markets in many countries across the region, including Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru and Uruguay. Globally, BYD’s electric vehicles have spread to over 300 cities in more than 50 countries and regions.

BYD’s headquarters for its North and South American operations is in downtown Los Angeles, California, where the firm’s American SkyRail™ Team is based.

“Over my 45-year career in the planning, design, and construction of rapid transit systems here and abroad, I have never seen a company that matches the depth and breadth of advanced transit technology of BYD – and certainly none with the financial and R&D resources needed to maintain its leadership position over decades to come,” BYD’s Senior Strategic Advisor for SkyRail projects in North America, Dr. Thomas Stone, said. “This SkyRail™ system in Sao Paulo includes vehicles and systems similar to what the company is proposing here in Los Angeles and for several other cities in the United States. I believe this helps solidify BYD’s position as the new global leader in advanced, urban monorail technology.”

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway and BYD, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell a stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Battery and carmaker BYD has announced that its net profit for the first quarter fell roughly 85 percent from the same period last year.

Total revenues in the first quarter slumped 35 percent to 19.68 billion yuan.

BYD’s total vehicle sales for the first three months plunged 48 percent from the same period in 2019 to 61,273 units. Of those sales, New Energy Vehicles accounted for 22,192 vehicles with electric and plug-in hybrid drive, which in addition to reduced sales due to the impact of COV-19, were also hurt by a decrease in government subsidies that went into place mid-2019.

With China reopening rapidly from the COVID-19 shutdown, BYD projected that revenues would rebound and predicted profits will increase 10 to 23 percent for the first half of the year.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD Motors, LLC., has pledged a donation of $1 million in medical supplies, including PPEs and hand sanitizer to transit agencies and first responders in the United States and Canada.

The supplies are arriving at various U.S. distributions centers to be closer to those locations where they are needed most.

The supplies include FDA-approved Adult Surgical Masks and KN-95 respiratory protective devices as well as hand sanitizer that is 99.999% effective. Several thousand PPEs have already been delivered to agencies that include the City of Los Angeles, the Valley Medical Center in San Jose California, the Toronto Transit Commission and the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

BYD President for North America Stella Li praised first responders and transit agency employees working to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“BYD wants to help those who are helping all of us and believe this is how we can do it best,” she said. “We will get through this together.”

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold, and is now worth roughly $1.96 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD has announced the launch of the Blade Battery, a development set to mitigate concerns about battery safety in electric vehicles.

At an online launch event themed “The Blade Battery – Unsheathed to Safeguard the World”, Wang Chuanfu, BYD Chairman and President, said that the Blade Battery reflects BYD’s determination to resolve issues in battery safety while also redefining safety standards for the entire industry.

BYD highlighted a video of the Blade Battery successfully passing a nail penetration test, which is seen as the most rigorous way to test the thermal runaway of batteries due to its sheer difficulty. “In terms of battery safety and energy density, BYD’s Blade Battery has obvious advantages,” said Professor Ouyang Minggao, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor at Tsinghua University.

The Blade Battery has been developed by BYD over the past several years. The singular cells are arranged together in an array and then inserted into a battery pack. Due to its optimized battery pack structure, the space utilization of the battery pack is increased by over 50% compared to conventional lithium iron phosphate block batteries.

While undergoing nail penetration tests, the Blade Battery emitted neither smoke nor fire after being penetrated, and its surface temperature only reached 30 to 60°C. Under the same conditions, a ternary lithium battery exceeded 500°C and violently burned, and while a conventional lithium iron phosphate block battery did not openly emit flames or smoke, its surface temperature reached dangerous temperatures of 200 to 400°C. This implies that EVs equipped with the Blade Battery would be far less susceptible to catching fire – even when they are severely damaged.

The Blade Battery also passed other extreme test conditions, such as being crushed, bent, being heated in a furnace to 300°C and overcharged by 260%. None of these resulted in a fire or explosion.

He Long, Vice President of BYD and Chairman of FinDreams Battery Co., Ltd., covered four distinct advantages of the Blade Battery including a high starting temperature for exothermic reactions, slow heat release and low heat generation, as well as its ability to not release oxygen during breakdowns or easily catch fire.

In the past few years, many EV manufacturers have fallen into a competition for ever-greater cruising range. When the range becomes the prime factor to consider, this focus is then transferred to power battery makers, leading to unreasonable pursuits of “energy density” in the battery industry. It is due to this unpractical focus on “energy density” that safety has been sidelined from power battery development. BYD’s Blade Battery aims to bring battery safety back to the forefront, a redirection from the industry’s tenuous focus on this crucial aspect.

“Today, many vehicle brands are in discussion with us about partnerships based on the technology of the Blade Battery,” said He Long. He added that BYD will gladly share and work with global partners to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for all industry players.

The Han EV, BYD’s flagship sedan model slated for launch this June, will come equipped with the Blade Battery. The new model will lead the brand’s Dynasty Family, boasting a cruising range of 605 kilometers and an acceleration of 0 to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold, and is now worth roughly $1.96 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD has jumped into the medical supplies business and almost overnight has already become one of the largest manufacturers of surgical masks.

BYD is growing its efforts to help alleviate severe shortages that have affected hospitals in the face of the COVID-19 global outbreak.

BYD’s manufacturing plant in Shenzen, China is mass-producing sanitary face masks, and is now running at full capacity.

The plant can produce 5 million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectant per day.

The supplies will “help alleviate severe shortages that have affected hospitals and agencies across China in the face of the global COVID-19 outbreak,” the company said in a statement.

BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu has appointed a special task force consisting of leaders from different business divisions and more than 3,000 engineers involved in research and development, design, processing and other roles.

“A production line for high-quality face masks requires about 1,300 parts for various gears, chains, and rollers, 90% of which are BYD’s self-made parts,” Sherry Li, director general of BYD’s President Office, said in a statement.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold, and is now worth roughly $1.96 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams) has named Marcela Cabrera Luna Business Development Analyst, Latin America. She will serve at BYD’s North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles guiding strategy and development of new business in Mexico and Latin America working closely with each team in the region.

A transportation, utility, and clean technology expert with over 10 years’ experience creating business strategies, managing programs, and developing climate and sustainability policies, Cabrera was most recently a senior project manager at CALSTART in Innovation Mobility.

At CALSTART, Cabrera managed $20 million in start-up seed funding allocated by CARB for Clean Mobility Options. These awards are funded by the California Climate Investments (CCI), a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving health and the environment while providing access.

Prior to that, Cabrera was at Tesla. She has also been responsible for corporate social responsibility projects with Amazon Watch, which works to protect the rainforest and indigenous peoples of South America.

She was a member of the Board of Directors for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability in the Silicon Valley, and now continues her engagement with the technology community in SoCal.

“It’s wonderful to have a woman with Marcela’s background and expertise in electric mobility, solar, and renewable energy join our growing team,” BYD President North America Stella Li said. “Professionals like Marcela make our strong team that much stronger.”

Reporting to Li, Cabrera will expand BYD’s strategic outreach in Latin America. Cabrera holds a Master’s in International Studies from the University of San Francisco and a B.S. in Anthropology and Markets from the University of California, Berkeley.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely, as Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) placed the largest single order for electric buses in U.S. history.

The order is for 134 BYD electric buses to be manufactured at BYD’s plant in Lancaster, California.

“The clean transportation revolution is not a distant dream — it’s happening on L.A.’s streets right now,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who spoke to dozens of LA reporters and city workers after quietly arriving at the Department of Transportation in a 30-foot battery-electric BYD K7M.

“Seeing these zero-emission buses rolling down our roads in the years ahead will bring us one step closer to realizing our vision of cleaner air, lower emissions, healthier communities, and a more sustainable future for all Angelenos,” Garcetti said as he stood in front of two of the four BYD buses that have already been delivered to the city. In all, Los Angeles will have 134 BYD buses, Garcetti said.

The record-breaking order helps advance the core goals of Mayor Garcetti’s recently signed Executive Directive — “L.A.’s Green New Deal: Leading By Example” — which includes measures to make LADOT’s bus fleet entirely emissions-free in time for the opening ceremonies of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $230 million has grown in value almost ten-fold, and is now worth roughly $1.96 billion.

For More on BYD, read the Special Report: BYD, Berkshire’s Tesla.

© 2020 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.