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BYD Rolls Out World’s Longest Pure Electric Bus

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has debuted a three-section, 27-meter (89-feet) pure electric bus.

The double articulation bus is capable of transporting 250 people at a top-speed of 70 kilometers per hour (43 mph).

“Today, BYD once again uses its core technology, reliable products and innovative solutions to solve the two great urban ills of congestion and pollution,” Stella Li, Senior Vice President of BYD said. “The K12A will bring zero emissions to BRT systems, allowing passengers to enjoy quiet, pollution-free travel, while at the same time saving significant maintenance costs for operators.”

The bus can optimize it efficiency by switching between 2-wheel-drive and 4-wheel-drive.

The K12A is designed for lower-speed, high capacity operations, including airport shuttles and university campus routes where quick loading and high seating capacity are the most important factors.

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.

© 2019 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.

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BYD Celebrates 300th Pure Electric Bus Built in Lancaster, California

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, and the Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) celebrated two milestones: BYD’s 300th battery-electric bus built in Lancaster, California; and AVTA’s 1,000,000th electric service mile running BYD buses.

The AVTA serves the cities of Palmdale, Lancaster and Northern Los Angeles County, California.

Speakers included Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, Palmdale Mayor Steven D. Hofbauer, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles, Shi Yuanqiang , and SMART Union Rep Willy Solorzano.

Two messages ran throughout the program: electric buses are good for the environment; and building them locally is great for our communities.

“We are very proud of this 300th American bus milestone. We are passionate about our mission to create a cleaner environment here in North America and across the globe,” said Stella Li, BYD President.

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris added, “BYD has continuously shown its dedication to our community and region at-large, since establishing its North American manufacturing facilities here in Lancaster,” Parris said. “Along the way, BYD has established itself as the gold standard in the battery electric bus transportation industry. In fact, our local Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) will very soon have a 100% all-electric bus fleet.”

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Pure Electric Buses Now Rolling in Ecuador

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BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has delivered twenty of its pure electric buses to the city of Guayaquil.

The buses will be operated by private bus operator Saucinc.

The port city, which is known as “the Gateway to the Galapagos,” is swapping its entire fleet of diesel transit buses for pure-electric buses.

The move comes after a five month pilot program proved the viability of the buses. The test bus ran an average of 250 kilometers per day.

BYD’s K9 buses feature air conditioning and Wi-Fi, and will have a dramatic impact on air pollution and fuel costs.

The buses are projected to reduce 12.8 tons of CO2 and 2.9 million gallons of diesel annually.

In addition to the buses, the city already has a fleet of BYD ev taxis in service.

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

Special Report: Will BYD’s SkyRail Save Los Angeles Tens of Billions in Mass Transit Construction Costs?

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

China’s BYD, a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has proposed building its SkyRail monorail to ease congestion in one of Los Angeles’s busiest and most congested freeway corridors.

Is this the one proposal that could save Los Angeles billions in construction costs and shave decades off the construction timeline? It just may be.

It’s not just speculation. The idea is already under consideration. BYD’s SkyRail proposal is one of LA Metro’s four new refined concepts for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor.

The goal is to create a high-capacity transit line between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside through the Sepulveda Pass that would move some 100,000 people a day off the I-405 Freeway, which is already ranked as one of the most traveled urban highways in the nation.

According to LA Metro, over 400,000 people currently travel through this area every day to commute to work, school, and other destinations along the freeway and beyond.

LA Metro’s four concepts include three standard rail projects, similar to its current Red Line subway, and would either be underground or a combination of underground and above ground, and BYD’s SkyRail Monorail.

The Sepulveda Transit Corridor project would link San Fernando Valley and LAX, including connections to existing and planned Metro bus and rail lines, including the Orange, Purple, and Expo Lines, and is part of the Measure M expenditure plan, with approximately $5.7 billion for new transit service to connect the San Fernando Valley and the Westside, which is scheduled to open by 2035.

Passed in November 2016, Measure M is a voter approved countywide half-cent sales tax increase, which funds a $120 billion mass transit expansion plan.

Approximately $3.8 billion is already allocated to extend that service from the Westside to LAX with a 2057 opening date.

The Elephant in the Room

With public transit, the two biggest factors are always cost and time of construction. Certainly the biggest factor in LA’s case is cost. The standard heavy rail projects would cost tens of billions.

For example, LA’s currently under construction 9-mile Purple extension of the underground rail system that runs from the current Wilshire/Western station is budgeted at $8.2 billion and will take to decades to build.

The project broke ground in November 2014 and is not scheduled to be fully completed until 2035.

However, unlike a subway, BYD is proposing to build its SKY Rail monorail, which would run in a corridor down the middle of the I-405 freeway, saving billions in tunneling costs and environmental concerns.

SkyRail would be a fully integrated, driverless, state-of-the-art straddle type monorail that is far advanced from the monorails people are familiar with at theme parks such as Disney World and Disneyland.

Most importantly, BYD notes that its SkyRail is only one fifth the cost of a subway, and using BYD’s prefabricated track beams can in some cases mean a construction schedule as short as 2 years. That’s not to say LA’s system would be built that fast, but it certainly wouldn’t take decades.

As a public transit alternative to subways, BYD’s SkyRail delivers numerous benefits, including: capital expenditure 80% lower than subways, a construction period two-thirds shorter than subways, excellent topographic adaptability due to higher climbing ability and smaller turning radius, reduced noise to allow travel through architectural complexes, visual integration into the cityscape thanks to transparent bridges and independent right of way, flexible management to allow for capacity between 10,000 to 30,000 passengers an hour (each way) and a high speed of up to 80km/h.

The company notes that SkyRail is an effective complement to large cities’ subway networks, and BYD already has construction contracts in China for Shenzhen, Shantou, Xi’an, Bengbu, Guang’an, Jilin, Tianjin, and others.

Not Just a Concept

BYD put its first SkyRail in service in 2016 with a 5.4-kilometer trial line that connects BYD’s headquarters in Shenzhen with a nearby high-speed railway station.

BYD has landed contracts to build SkyRails outside of China, as well.

BYD is set to construct its first Latin American monorail in the Brazilian city of Salvador. Construction will commence in 2019 with the goal of being operational by 2021.

Like the LA proposal, the system will integrate with other mass transit. Salvador’s SkyRail will move a projected 15,000 passengers a day, connecting them to the public metro network that currently serves over 2.9 million people.

Will SkyRail be the choice of LA Metro? We will know more in roughly six months, as the 20-month study is expected to conclude by fall 2019.

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD’s EV Sales Up 300% January 2019 Over January 2018

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has announced that its year-on-year electric car sales rose almost 300% for the month of January 2019 over January 2018.

BYD’s official number is 292%.

The company sold 28,005 electric cars in China in January, which is its third highest month ever.

The robust sales are in great part due to the continued success of its BYD Yuan, which set its eighth consecutive month of record sales with 10,093 vehicles.

The Yuan ranks #1 in the plug-in electric car segment in China.

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD on a Roll with 50,000 Electric Buses

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has hit a remarkable figure in its quest to get the world of buses to change from the soot-belching, diesel polluters of yore, to a vehicle that’s on the forefront of environmentally sound transportation.

BYD reached has a new milestone with the completion of its 50,000th battery-electric bus.

The company notes that according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s research, operating 50,000 electric buses is equivalent to taking 1.35 million cars off the road and eliminating 84.5 million tons of C02 over the vehicles’ 12-year lifespan.

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

Fleet of BYD Electric Buses to Run in Colombia

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has sold 64 electric buses to Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city.

The order is second in Latin America only to Chile’s order of 100 buses.

The buses will be BYD’s 12.5-meter-long K9G, which has a seating capacity of 80. The buses are have a range of roughly 300 kilometres per charge, with a two hour charging time.

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.

© 2019 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Selling 1,000 Electric Buses a Month

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, is selling 1,000 of it pure electric buses a month.

BYD announced that its unaudited sales volume for November 2018 was 1,049 buses.

The new energy company based in Shenzhen, China, has its buses in service around the world, including the U.S. , Canada, India, South Korea, Norway, and of course China.

The company has successfully partnered with local bus manufacturers in a number of countries, including Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) in England and Olectra Greentech in India.

In England, BYD-ADL is producing the first pure electric double-decker buses.

Through November, BYD had sold a total of 451,050 cars, SUVs, buses, and other vehicles, with 201,161 being New Energy vehicles.

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.

© 2018 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Electric Buses Begin Test Runs in Delhi

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has begun a three month test run of its pure electric bus in Delhi.

Built in India, the 12-metre pure electric bus, eBuzz K9, has a seating capacity of 35.
The buses are manufactured in New Delhi by Olectra Greentech (formerly known as Goldstone Infratech) in partnership with BYD Auto Industry Co. Ltd.

Olectra-BYD buses are currently running in four states. The company first placed electric buses in service, beginning in September 2017 between Kullu-Manali under the Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC), and in September 2018 between the city of Hyderabad and the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport under the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC).

Olectra-BYD’s eBuzz K7 is also in service in Mumbai under the Brihan Mumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST).

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.

© 2018 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.

Categories
Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD to List Battery Unit by 2022

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

BYD (Build Your Dreams), a world leader and pioneer in battery and zero-emission vehicles, has announced plans to list its battery unit by 2022.

The company did not specify the exchange it would be listed on.

The move, which was reported by Reuters out of Beijing, comes roughly six months after BYD opened the world’s largest battery manufacturing plant in the western province of Qinghai. The plant is designed to keep up with the demands of a company that has become the world leader in battery powered cars.

The facility has commenced manufacturing batteries, but the entire facility will not be fully completed until the end of 2019.

The plant opened with a manufacturing capacity of 24 GWh, and BYD aims to increase its total manufacturing capacity to 60 GWh by 2020.

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.

© 2018 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.