Build Your Dream Car Company or BYD. BYD is a Chinese company that originally built batteries for cell phones and decided to build electric and hybrid cars that will be also be available in Europe and the US. Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway bought a equity stake 10% in BYD for $230 million a few years back.

Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. And perhaps most famously, Never invest in a business you cannot understand.

So when Buffett’s friend and longtime partner in Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB), Charlie Munger, suggested early last year that they invest in BYD, an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone, and electric car company, one might have predicted Buffett would cite rule No. 3 above. He is, after all, a man who shunned the booming U.S. tech industry during the 1990s.

But Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger’s description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang Chuan-Fu, whom he had met through a mutual friend. “This guy,” Munger tells Fortune, “is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch – something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it.”

Coming from Munger, that meant a lot. Munger, the 85-year-old vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is a curmudgeon who frowns on most investment ideas. “When I call Charlie with an idea,” Buffett tells me, “and he says, ‘That is really a dumb idea,’ that means we should put 100% of our net worth into it. If he says, ‘That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,’ then you should put 50% of your net worth into it. Only if he says, ‘I’m going to have you committed,’ does it mean he really doesn’t like the idea.”

This time Buffett asked another trusted partner, David Sokol, chairman of a Berkshire-owned utility company called MidAmerican Energy, to travel to China and take a closer look at BYD.

Wang Chuan-Fu started BYD (the letters are the initials of the company’s Chinese name) in 1995 in Shenzhen, China. A chemist and government researcher, Wang raised some $300,000 from relatives, rented about 2,000 square meters of space, and set out to manufacture rechargeable batteries to compete with imports from Sony and Sanyo. By about 2000, BYD had become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cellphone batteries. The company went on to design and manufacture mobile-phone handsets and parts for Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung.

Wang entered the automobile business in 2003 by buying a Chinese state-owned car company that was all but defunct. He knew very little about making cars but proved to be a quick study. In October a BYD sedan called the F3 became the bestselling sedan in China, topping well-known brands like the Volkswagen Jetta and Toyota (TM) Corolla.

BYD has also begun selling a plug-in electric car with a backup gasoline engine, a move putting it ahead of GM, Nissan, and Toyota. BYD’s plug-in, called the F3DM (for “dual mode”), goes farther on a single charge – 62 miles – than other electric vehicles and sells for about $22,000, less than the plug-in Prius and much-hyped Chevy Volt are expected to cost when they hit the market in late 2010. Put simply, this little-known upstart has accelerated ahead of its much bigger rivals in the race to build an affordable electric car. Today BYD employs 130,000 people in 11 factories, eight in China and one each in India, Hungary, and Romania.

Its U.S. operations are small – about 20 people work in a sales and marketing outpost in Elk Grove Village, Ill., near Motorola, and another 20 or so work in San Francisco, not far from Apple. BYD makes about 80% of Motorola’s RAZR handsets, as well as batteries for iPods and iPhones and low-cost computers, including the model distributed by Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child nonprofit based in Cambridge, Mass. Revenues, which have grown by about 45% annually during the past five years, reached $4 billion in 2008.

In acquiring a stake in BYD, Buffett broke a couple of his own rules. “I don’t know a thing about cellphones or batteries,” he admits. “And I don’t know how cars work.” But, he adds, “Charlie Munger and Dave Sokol are smart guys, and they do understand it. And there’s no question that what’s been accomplished since 1995 at BYD is extraordinary.”

One more thing reassured him. Berkshire Hathaway first tried to buy 25% of BYD, but Wang turned down the offer. He wanted to be in business with Buffett – to enhance his brand and open doors in the U.S., he says – but he would not let go of more than 10% of BYD’s stock. “This was a man who didn’t want to sell his company,” Buffett says. “That was a good sign.”

Wang is also focused on building a stronger executive team to drive the company forward. “The good news is, he’s 42 years old,” Sokol says. “The bad news is that he’s clearly the brains behind the organization, and the drive. He has to develop a team faster, but I think he knows that.” Last winter it was Sokol’s turn to lead Wang on a tour of his home country. They started in Detroit, where BYD’s cars generated buzz at the North American Auto Show, and wound up on the West Coast, where Wang met for the first time with Charlie Munger. In between, they stopped in Omaha.

“How did BYD get so far ahead?” Warren Buffett asked Wang, speaking through a translator. “Our company is built on technological know-how,” Wang answered. Wary as always of a technology play, Buffett asked how BYD would sustain its lead. “We’ll never, never rest,” Wang replied.

Buffett may not understand batteries or cars, or Mandarin for that matter. Drive, however, is something that needs no translation. Click HERE to read the full very interesting bio on Wang Chuan-Fu.

An early criticism of the federal government’s investment in electric car infrastructure was that it focused too narrowly on a few locations. But yesterday the US Department of Energy announced 16 projects to support EV adoption in 24 states and the District of Columbia in an effort to encourage adoption more broadly across the US.

The Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Initiative Awards, totaling $8.5 million, were provided to communities ranging in experience—from those with extensive electric car charging plans in the works, to those just getting started.

With these funds, one-year projects will help communities address specific needs, such as updating permitting processes, revising codes, training municipal personnel, promoting public awareness, and developing incentives. Community-specific plans will be created and be made publicly available, allowing all stakeholders to learn best practices.

• California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District was awarded $1 million to create a unified statewide approach to planning and implementation of plug-in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
• The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority was granted $994,500 to develop a plan for a network of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
• In Texas, $1 million will be spent to develop a plan for plug-in electric vehicle charging infrastructure for the Texas Triangle cities of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston/Galveston, and Austin/San Antonio. Additional planning work is being conducted in Houston and Austin.
• EV readiness and deployment strategies will also be created for Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Each of the Clean Cities approved projects will receive at least $300,000.

These latest grants are dwarfed by the D.O.E.’s $114.8 million of funding for The EV Project, designed to deploy and evaluate private and public charging in California, Oregon, Washington Arizona, Tennessee and Texas. Those funds were made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and were matched by another $115 million in private investment.

The funding was in line with the Obama administration’s larger goal of stimulating green jobs-creating infrastructure development, but like some other projects, it’s been slow to get off the ground. The EV Project has come under fire in states like Oregon, where it installed its first charger in June—despite having initially promised 1100 chargers by that time. According to Ecotality, the problem with the planned timetable for the EV Project was that it outstripped actual electric vehicle deliveries.

One of the benefits of the Clean Cities Initiative’s community-specific funding model is that money (and chargers) can go where they’re needed, when they’re needed—without the risk of overbuilding some areas at the expense of others in an attempt to meet deadlines.

(By Zach McDonald via PlugIn cars)

We all know that Walmart has killed many local family-run businesses, although at least they’re now teaming up with Michelle Obama to help local farmers. It’s a step in the right direction for sure.

In certain parts of the U.S., you can’t turn a corner without bumping into a farmer’s market or grocery store. But there are plenty of spots in the country where consumers lack these options and are instead forced to shop at junk food-filled convenience stores.

Walmart announced this week that it will open up to 300 new locations over the next five years in food deserts across the country as part of an initiative spearheaded by Michelle Obama. These locations, along with the 218 stores in food deserts that Walmart has opened over the past four years, will serve 1.3 million people–many of whom have no other option for fresh produce and unprocessed foods other than Walmart. The company is, in other words, virtually guaranteed to be the biggest grocer in these locations (Walmart already makes up 25% of grocery sales nationwide).

“By opening stores where customers need them most, Walmart will help build healthier families and stronger communities. We believe every single person should have access to an abundant selection of fresh fruits and vegetables at an affordable price,” said Leslie Dach, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Walmart, in a statement.”

The food desert plan is part of a larger plan by Walmart to make local, healthy food more accessible to customers. Walmart recently announced plans to double sales of fresh produce sourced from local farms in U.S. stores by the end of 2015. The company also expects to invest over $1 billion in its global fresh food supply chain over the next five years.

Obesity rates are steadily climbing so at least the superstore is providing some healthy options.

via @fastcompany

Sandra Bullock is proving to be one generous actress.

The Oscar winner donated $1 million to the American Red Cross this week to aid earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, the charity told CNN on Thursday. This is the largest celebrity donation to the Red Cross since the disaster, although the charity has received other anonymous donations, it reports.

Visa just announced the ability for U.S. Visa card holders to send and receive funds from other cardholders anywhere in the world. The system, which will hit later in 2011, will greatly increase the scope of person-to-person digital payments globally.

Visa says it’s mplementing the personal-payments protocol throughout its systems in the U.S., which means that at some point soon anyone in the U.S. holding a Visa debit or credit card will be able to send money to anyone else who owns a Visa card anywhere (though if you owe money to someone with a Mastercard, or just want it sent to their bank account, you’re out of luck). It’s a breakthrough, Visa notes, that extends the services Visa offers from the point of sale into the ephemeral digital space and lets consumers “pay one another.”

The way it works is pretty simple: If your bank supports the transaction (and Visa’s careful to note this does only apply to “participating financial institutions”), then when you arrange to make a personal payment to someone else from your account, using their 16-digit Visa card number instead of their bank-account number. An email address or phone number will work, too, assuming the client has linked these details to the banks. Visa thinks “this makes sending money to a niece for her birthday or to a son in college simpler, faster, and more convenient than before.” Nothing says “I love you” like cash money.

The new service was made possible by a number of moves Visa’s made, including tweaks to its global payments network VisaNet and “strategic product agreements” with CashEdge Inc. and Fiserv, Inc. which are two of the “leading providers of electronic person-to-person payment” services.

Eight years ago, at age 99, Leonard McCracken failed an eye test for renewing his driver’s license. He put his Lincoln Continental up for sale and got $1,600. “I sold it in three days — I got a good price. I love to haggle,” he says.

McCracken, who lives in Florida, has been living in retirement since about 1969, when he left a position as a salesman with a now-defunct steel company in Ohio. Since then, he’s been living on savings, Social Security and a lifetime annuity that he purchased before he retired. He has never had a pension. At 107, after living in retirement for 41 years, he’s still paying the bills and getting by on his own resources.

“Dad never made more than $10,000 a year in his life,” says his son Bob, a 73-year-old retired GE aircraft engineer.

So how does a guy with a modest income manage all of this? McCracken points to a half-dozen basic principles that have gotten him through life and continue to serve him well.

Thrift
In his whole life, McCracken says, he has only owned two new cars. The rest of the time he bought used. He still shops at the thrift store. And he remembers vividly the time that his wife was holding a garage sale and left him in charge. When she returned, he had sold the living room sofa for $100. “I had a very understanding, frugal wife (Dorothy, who died in 2002 at 95 after 75 years of marriage). We gave up a lot of things that other people were buying in order to break even.”

Real Estate Investments
McCracken bought and sold 35 houses in his life, including five that he built himself. His son, Bob McCracken, says his parents “always invested in a nice house and that has helped my dad. He is living off the equity in the last home he and my mother owned.”

The elder McCracken agreed that buying and selling real estate was a smart move for him. “We didn’t make a lot of money in every case,” he says. “But we made something and that helped. Real Estate is bad now, but it will come back,” he says. “And people who buy now, will make a lot of money.”

Use Debt Well
During the Great Depression, McCracken worked for a bank. He watched people lose their shirts and learned from it. Throughout his life, he borrowed when he had to, but he borrowed as little as possible, he says, and he paid it back as quickly as he could.

Work Even When Jobs Are Hard to Find
McCracken was unemployed about 45 years ago after his previous employer went bankrupt. He had to take a job driving a truck that paid $5 per day. It was a low point in his life, but between that and a commission sales job that he took at night, he and his family muddled through until he got back on his feet.

Save and Invest Conservatively
All of McCracken’s money is in CDs and bonds. He’s always avoided the stock market, even when people who purported to know more than he advised him differently. “When the economy tanked, he made a lot of us look real silly,” Bob McCracken says.

Stay Healthy
McCracken has hung onto his health and his wits and has had no major medical bills at all throughout his entire life. It has only been in the last year that he’s needed a little assistance. And even then, he doesn’t need much, his son says.

Conservation Fund’s ShadeFund is a new program that raises ‘donated capital’ for small loans to green entrepreneurs. The inaugural sponsor: Mercedes-Benz, plans to give loans to between 10 and 12 Signature ShadeFund Entrepreneurs in the next two years.

The first two projects to get funding are CityBench, a Connecticut-based company that gathers wood from city trees that come down in storms or have reached the end of their life to create furniture; and Bluebird Hill Farm, a small farm in North Carolina that sells lavender, herbs, and vegetables. Mercedez-Benz will lend $25,000 to CityBench and $20,000 to Bluebird Hill Farm.

“When small entrepreneurs approach banks, they’re regularly turned down. This is allowing them to get the working capital to grow to a point where they are attractive to traditional banks and commercial lenders,” explains Larry Selzer, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund.

Why is Mercedes-Benz involved? “We’re underway at Daimler/Mercedes-Benz with an enormous, broad commitment to decreasing our imprint on the planet,” says Steve Cannon, vice president of marketing for MBUSA. “This is an opportunity where interests align.”

Entrepreneurs will be selected in a number of categories–sustainable farms, forestry and forest products, eco-tourism and small-scale renewable energy production–for funding over the next two years. Mercedes-Benz will offer loans of $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the size of the project. Individuals are also encouraged to donate funds at the ShadeFund’s website.

In Namibia, Miss Emily Cummins is known as “The Fridge Lady”. This is because she invented a solar-powered refrigerator that is can help many poverty-stricken Africans.

The solar-powered refrigerator works with two cylinders, one inside the other. The inner cylinder is metal while the outer one is wood or plastic. In between these two cylinders is either sand or soil, which can be soaked with water. The sun’s rays heat the wet material, and as the water evaporates, the heat is removed from the inner cylinder. This keeps the fridge at a cool six degrees Celsius.

This solar-powered fridge could easily change the world as we know it. Now perishable goods such as meat and milk can be stored for days in areas where there is no grid electricity. Miss Cummings spent a lot of time in Africa showing the people her invention.

This is pretty cool considering that Emily Cummins is only in her early twenties. She has won awards for some of her other inventions including a toothpaste squeezer for arthritis sufferers and a water carrying device, also for use in the Third World.

She is a graduate of Leeds University and was once refused a place on an engineering course, because she didn’t have the correct qualifications.  T.

Extreme Exclusive B.V. is presenting the MUTANDOR®, a multifunctional terrace-to-building system. One system with more than ten functions. The MUTANDOR® is a complete terrace, from which walls (housefronts) will rise, a complete roof appears and a part sinks down, so that a swimming pool becomes available. This advanced system can be used as a terrace, as windscreens, party-hall, podium, pool cover, pool with movable pool floor etc. For almost all these options you can choose for the combination “open air”, or “partly in-house” (is partly covered) or “full in-house” (is closed roof).

The Nissan Leaf, has reached its goal of 20,000 pre-orders three months ahead of schedule. Pre-orders first became available in April.

Not everyone who pre-ordered will necessarily buy a Leaf, of course. A $99 reservation fee isn’t enough to force people to follow through on their commitments. It is an encouraging sign however for the $33,000 all-electric vehicle, which will be available throughout the U.S. by the end of 2011.

The car company also hopes to drum up interest during the upcoming “Drive Electric” tour, which begins on October 1. The Leaf will make stops throughout the U.S. for public test drives and technology demonstrations.

This Australian McDonald’s is emblematic of the global retaurants chain’s new design direction. | Photograph Courtesy of McDonald’s NDG Australia.

Designer: Denis Weil adds flair to McDonald’s plate while being ever mindful to operations. | Photograph by Christopher Sturman

Saab will be making its first step into the electric vehicle market. It’s developing an EV, the 9-3 ePower, and it will be debuting the car publicly at the Paris Motor Show later this month, according to a press release.

Saab says it’s planning a test driving and evaluation program to be enacted in its motherland of Sweden, and that won’t start until at least 2011.

The car will have a 184 horsepower electric motor. It can go from 0 to over 60 miles per hour in 8.5 seconds, and its top speed is around 90 miles an hour. It will have a range of about 125 miles, enabled by a compact lithium-ion battery occupying the car’s wheelbase.