China plugs into electric car market

The car is a pretty ordinary looking sedan, which is not an altogether bad thing for an electric car. The weird, boxy “green-look” of so many of the pioneer models had limited appeal.

But it’s the battery in BYD Auto’s new E6 fully electric car, not the design, that is currently causing the buzz in the decidedly dejected auto industry.

Instead of being made with lithium ion, which is expensive, increasingly hard to come by, environmentally unfriendly and potentially dangerous in a crash, BYD has devised a battery that uses ferrous ion, which is cheap, plentiful and green. If it turns out to be as functional as the Chinese company claims, it could be the breakthrough needed to finally bring electric cars into the mainstream.
Driving.CA