Portland to electric car maker BYD Auto: Build your car here. Please!

Portland to electric car maker BYD Auto: Build your car here. Please!: "Portland to electric car maker BYD Auto: Build your car here. Please!
Officials hope to get BYD Auto to import – or even make – hybrids here

By Chris Lydgate

Pamplin Media Group, Sep 11, 2008 (2 Reader comments)
(news photo)

Chinese carmaker BYD Auto is being wooed by Oregon officials from Gov. Ted Kulongoski to Mayor-elect Sam Adams to select Portland as its distribution hub or even produce some of its hybrid or all-electric cars here.

Political and business heavyweights are rolling out the green carpet in hopes of convincing a Chinese electric car manufacturer to set up shop in the Portland area.

Representatives from BYD Auto of Shenzhen have met with Gov. Ted Kulongoski, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, Mayor Tom Potter, Mayor-elect Sam Adams, and a host of other local dignitaries who are chasing a collective dream: to persuade the Chinese carmaker to make Portland its distribution hub, its North American headquarters or even – buckle your seatbelt – its U.S. manufacturing base."