This is the year that the Chinese came out of the basement--both literally and figuratively.

Last year, upstart Chinese battery and vehicle manufacturer BYD was relegated to the nether regions of Cobo Center, and as a consequence didn't get a lot of attention. This year, the company--which has been in the battery business only since 1995, didn't start building cars until 2003, and now boasts an 8000-engineer-strong R&D department--moved to the main floor of the Detroit auto show, where it debuted the E6 and also showed the F3DM and the F6DM.

The E6 is an all-electric, five-passenger people mover that has a range of 250 miles, can be fully charged in about 10 hours by plugging into a standard household outlet, and takes only 10 minutes to charge to 50 percent capacity.

On sale in China since December, the F3DM is the world's first plug-in hybrid. The size of a Toyota Corolla, the F3DM is powered by a hybrid gasoline/electric powertrain that makes 160 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. A full recharge takes 7 hours, although a 50 percent charge can be accomplished in as little as 10 minutes.

Also on hand in Detroit was the F6DM, which is set to go on sale in 2009 in China. the F6DM shares a powertrain with the F3DM but is sized more like a Toyota Camry than a Toyota Corolla.

BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu announced that the company's goal is to enter the U.S. market in 2011. Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet's company) and Mid American Energy Holding Company have made significant investments in BYD, and as anyone who follows Warren Buffet knows, he backs winners, so the outlook for the company appears to be positive. As far as a manufacturing presence goes, Wang stated that the company would like to set up a facility in the U.S. "when appropriate." We're not sure if he could have been more vague, but with the state of America's (and the world's) economy, perhaps it's all that we could have expected.