China's first mass-produced hybrid electric car hits the market 2008 | BYD Auto, Chinese company backed by Warren Buffett

A Car in Every Port
BYD Auto: China's first mass-produced hybrid car goes on sale

BEIJING, Dec. 15, 2008 (AFP) -- China's first mass-produced hybrid electric car hit the market on Monday, its manufacturer said, in a move aimed at driving the nation to the cutting edge of the world's green auto industry.

The car is made by BYD Auto, a Chinese company backed by American Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors who owns 9.9 percent of the firm.

The F3DM is also the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car, meaning owners can charge it from powerpoints at home for the first time, as well as in specialised electric car charging stations, according to BYD.

BYD president Wang Chuanfu was quoted by Chinese media as saying that his firm and China were on their way to being world leaders in the fuel-efficient auto industry.

"Through the F3DM dual-mode electric vehicle, BYD will grab a head-start in the new energy automobile market," he said at the launch in the southern city of Shenzhen, according to Auto 18, an online platform for China's auto industry.

A spokeswoman for the company confirmed the launch took place on Monday, but gave no other details.

BYD, which also specialises in making rechargeable batteries, only started making cars in 2003 when it bought a bankrupt state-owned auto company.

Its hybrid car is planned to first go on the market in 14 Chinese cities, and the firm is initially focusing on striking deals for company fleets rather than individuals, mycar168.com, another auto website, quoted Wang as saying.

The United States, meanwhile, is currently examining the F3DM to see if it meets the necessary standards for its domestic market, a spokesperson for the firm was quoted as saying by pcauto.com.cn, another car-focused web portal.

Exports to the United States could begin from 2010, according to the report.

The Prius hybrid electric car, made by Japan's Toyota, is currently sold in China, but the F3DM is the first locally made hybrid vehicle to hit the market.

Other carmakers in China have also manufactured these types of hybrid cars but never released them for public sale, said Duan Chengwu, a Shanghai-based technical analyst with international market research firm Global Insight.

The F3DM, meanwhile, has beaten Toyota and General Motors in the plug-in area, as the two companies only plan to launch hybrid cars that can be charged from home in 2009 and 2010 respectively, Duan said.

BYD's hybrid car, which can run 100 kilometres (62 miles) on a full battery, will cost just under 150,000 yuan (22,000 dollars).

Duan expressed doubt that the F3DM would initially be successful with Chinese customers because of the high price.

"In the initial stage, I don't think Chinese customers will buy a lot of these cars, but BYD wants to use them to test the waters," he said.

"Ultimately, though, this kind of car has a big potential in the Chinese market, and in the world market, because we all know we need new energy cars to solve the environmental and oil crisis problems."

Duan said Chinese automakers still lagged behind Western companies in conventional car technologies, but were at a similar level when it came to hybrids.

"The Chinese manufacturers have the opportunity to leapfrog the traditional technologies and to gain a leading position in terms of new energy cars," he said.

Copyright 2008 -- Agence France-Presse

Discovering Yi-Fu Tuan

While teaching as a professor at the University of Minnesota in 1968 Yi-Fu Tuan began developing and espousing his philosophy of systematic humanistic geography. Of the two branches of systematic geography (physical and human) that exist, human geography employs many of the techniques used in the humanities such as source analysis and the use of text and literature to make findings.

Here's the abstract from an article Yi-Fu Tuan published in The Annals of the Association of American Geographers, February 2005 edition that explains it best:

The focus of humanistic geography is on people and their condition. Humanistic geography is thus not primarily an earth science, yet it is a branch of geography because it reflects upon kinds of evidence that interest other branches of the discipline. The following topics are briefly noted from the humanistic perspective: geographical knowledge, territory and place, crowding and privacy, livelihood and economics, and religion. The basic approach to these topics is by way of human experience, awareness, and knowledge. Humanistic geography contributes to science by drawing attention to facts hitherto beyond the scientific purview. It differs from historical geography in emphasizing that people create their own historical myths. A humanist geographer should have training in systematic thought, or philosophy. His work serves society essentially by raising its level of consciousness.

Tuan was born in 1930 in Tientsin, China. He studied at Oxford and earned a Phd at Berkeley. After fourteen years teaching at the University of Minnesota, he then moved to Madison, Wisconsin, citing the impending doom of a mid-life crisis that turned out to be mild. Tuan concluded his professional career at University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1998.

Today Yi-Fu Tuan is a retired professor-emeritus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He gives many lectures and has recently published a book entitled Place, Art and Self.

Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, published by Tuan more than 25 years ago, established the discipline of human geography, but it has proven influential in such diverse fields as theatre, literature, anthropology, psychology, and theology. Yi-Fu Tuan considers the ways in which people feel and think about space, how they form attachments to home, neighborhood, and nation, and how feelings about space and place are affected by the sense of time. He suggests that place is security and space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other. Whether he is considering sacred versus "biased" space, mythical space and place, time in experiential space, or cultural attachments to space, Tuan's analysis is thoughtful and insightful throughout.

He currently resides in Wisconsin. Here's a great story about the young Yi-Fu... Lost in Place; Yi-Fu Tuan may be the most influential scholar you've never heard of.

Saving a lost art... Chinese Street Food

During the Maoist years street chefs were banned from providing their distinctive cuisine. Despite the invasion of McDonald's and KFC there are some people who are working to revive the diversity of foods and cooking styles provided in Chinese street food. Some of these vendors trace their lineage in the culinary arts back over 200 years and through 7 generations. 

Verite to Host 10th Symposium on Social Responsibility in China

Verite', a 2007 Skoll award recipient, is hosting its 10th annual symposium on Social Responsibility in China on November 19 - 20, 2008 in Dongguan, China. This year's symposium will explore current trends and innovations in social responsibility programming in China. Over one and a half days are devoted to hearing from leaders in the field who are charting new approaches to solving common social compliance problems. The format will be in interactive, facilitating sharing and learning among participants.

Topics will include:

• The role of civil society and workers in supporting sustainable change in working conditions in China
• The new Contract Labor Law, its application and impact on the workplace
• Worker engagement and other best practices for long-term sustainability in sourcing
• Transparency as the starting place for change

Sponsors include Macy's, New Balance Foundation and Target. Read about last year's symposium for a glimpse of what they accomplished in 2007.

The Virtual Gugong

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is a new Web site created under a partnership between The Palace Museum and IBM. The site provides visitors with access to an immersive 3-dimensional virtual world where you can celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history.

In late 2006 I visited the Forbidden City with my friend Yang Pei. We spent the day hiking deeper and deeper into the core, touring scores of niche museums that archived various time frames along the path of Chinese history. It was both physically and intellectually overwhelming.

The virtual Gugong site encompasses the latest Web 2.0 dynamics, encouraging visitors to join in the site community in order to share in discussion and gain access to a greater number of features. I am downloading the 204MB application that will permit me to enter the virtual world. A half hour later I am installing the application. And, click to run... little wheel turns and turns, nothing happens. Stay tuned... there must be an answer.

Return to a bicycling Beijing...

Today the Washington Post reported, "The government began taking 30 percent of its cars in the capital off the roads Wednesday in an attempt to make permanent some of the traffic restrictions imposed during the Olympic Games, officials and media reports said."

This brings to mind black and white photos I saw of Beijing streets "clogged" with bicycles, and very few cars. Yes, the days of chairman Mao have their bright spots.

WAPO says, "Beginning Oct. 11, Chinese motorists will also stop driving one workday a week, based on the final number on their license plates. In addition to the recent traffic changes, businesses will begin staggering their hours, with large department stores opening at 10 a.m. and other offices beginning work between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m.."

There are many ways to apply these examples of Chinese "green thinking" that western cities might consider adopting, as we all work to lower carbon emissions.

The China connection(s)

Thomas Crampton is one of my many China connections...

Crampton writes about Obama’s Sun Yat Sen Connection, revealing that Obama and "the father of modern China, attended the same prep school in Hawaii" - even though they were students at Punaho School almost a hundred years apart. Most Americans probably wonder why any of this is important.

A hundred years in a culture over 7,000 years old is, much less significant than it might appear to be in a culture that is slightly more than 200 years old. The Chinese know and respect Sun Yat Sen - very much like Americans know and respect George Washington - because like Washington, Sun Yat Sen led a revolt against the monarchy, toppling the last emperor to rule China under the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

Did you know Sun Yat Sen was also an American citizen?

One of his most famous works is a publication known as the Three Principles of the People - including the principle of nationalism (minzu, 民族), democracy (minquan, 民權) and the People's Livelihood (minsheng, 民生).

TC says, there's other Obama China connection: that Obama's half-brother runs a dotcom out of Shenzhen and is married to a Chinese woman.