According to electric vehicle geographic forecasts recently released by the US-based market research and consulting firm Pike Research, California will remain the main market for electric vehicles in the US in the next eight years. After that time, 25 percent of the electric vehicles sold in the country are expected to be sold in that state.

By the same date, the number of electric vehicles sold in California's main cities is expected to make up 4.5 percent of all of the passenger vehicles purchased in the state. For the US market as a whole, the current comparable figure is 1 percent.

Analysts said local government policies in California will help BYD establish a presence in the state.

In China from 2010 to 2011, BYD saw its sales slump from 520,000 vehicles to 448,500 vehicles. And the company's passenger vehicle business remained mired in the first half of this year, showing an 11 percent year-on-year sales decline.

But its electric vehicle business, especially its buses and taxis used in "green" public transportation, has started to show signs of improvement.

The Shenzhen government recently said 50 percent of the buses in the southern city will be powered by new sources of energy by 2015, and all of the taxis there will be electric cars by the same year.

Analysts said those changes will help BYD, the dominant player in the city's electric public transportation industry, collect 36.5 billion yuan ($5.85 billion) in additional revenue in the next three to five years, an amount equal to 75 percent of its total revenue for 2011.

The city plans to add 8,000 energy buses and 15,000 electric taxis to its fleet in the next three to five years.

lifangfang@chinadaily.com.cn