New electric car may portend shift in transportation

How about a pure electric car that can go more than 200 miles on a charge and has a top speed of 87 miles an hour? What if it seats five in comfort and can be recharged in about an hour? Add a price that's comparable to a similar "crossover" vehicle, and you've got quite a vehicle.

No, it's not fiction, it's the new BYD e6, five-door hatchback on display at the Detroit auto show and it's going to be available in the United States later this year.

Unfortunately for the U.S. car industry, it's being built by BYD Co. in China, and not an American manufacturer. And, according to observers, it's not up modern standards in design, fit or finish.

But some think the car and company has promise -- most notably, Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway has a 9.9 percent stake in the Hong Kong-traded firm.

Range is an issue in Southwest Nebraska, where major cities are at least 250 miles away, almost within reach of the new vehicle. While most of us commute a fraction of that to work, it would be hard to justify two cars, one for driving to work and another for longer trips. Plus, we have to wonder how a purely battery-powered car would perform during the recent sub-zero weather.

But BYD "Build Your Dreams," started out as a battery manufacturer, and its new car is built around an innovative lithium ferrous battery that has price and environmental advantages to other types.

Fortunately, the company is interested in working with other manufacturers to promote electric vehicles, so let's hope the innovative technology will be showing up in a vehicle with an American label in a few years.

Soon, those wind turbines dotting the rural countryside will be generating the clean energy we use to get to work and travel to the big city. Worries about the fluctuating price of gasoline will become a thing of the past.