Exclusive: China's BYD mulls leaner, greener "re-birth" plan

By Norihiko Shirouzu SHANGHAI (Reuters) - BYD Co, one of the better known Chinese brands thanks to a stake held by billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett, may stop making conventional gasoline-fuelled cars within two years and focus on 'new energy' battery models as part of a "re-birth plan" to arrest a slump in sales. Shares in BYD, which once harbored long-term ambitions to be as big as Toyota Motor Corp, have tumbled by almost three quarters since a late-2009 peak, as net profit crumbled to just 81.4 million yuan ($13.15 million) last year from 3.8 billion yuan four years ago. Now, the ...

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