BYD Auto Co. of China plans to sell its brand of automobiles in both Europe and the United States by late 2008 or early 2009.

As the latest of the Chinese carmakers to announce its plans to tackle the U.S. market, BYD also intends to have a presence at the January Detroit auto show with electric cars and a plug-in hybrid.

The company is headquartered in Shenzhen and is known for making sweeping predictions including a goal of being the largest Chinese automaker by 2015. For 2007, however, its 100,000 units sold totals roughly 50% of the output of one U.S. assembly plant.

The same kind of tough talk emerges from BYD press information about its plug-in called the F6DM. Currently design specs call for a range of 267 miles and a top speed of 99 mph with a range of 62 miles on batteries only.

The life of the battery pack, some 2,000 charges, would give the F6DM an operational life of seven to ten years. A full recharge would require nine hours, but at a "special" power station 50 percent capacity could be reached in 10 minutes.

The specs make for interesting reading from a company with a reputation for big talk. In addition to its lofty sales goals, BYD hopes to be selling nothing but battery-powered cars by 2015.