He used to proudly say that he only invests in businesses he understands.

He seemingly lost his mind with his investment in Concoco Phillips.

I hope electric cars do well too, but this is another lapse in judgment.

The title is misleading; according to the article, BYD is a major battery manufacturer. They also bought a car company cheap and made it profitable. Now their car making branch is working together with the battery branch to make electric cars. If electric cars flop, they can still be profitable on batteries and regular gas-burning cars. I'm sure Buffett hasn't lost so much of his mind that he doesn't appreciate a no-lose situation.

He makes mistakes, Conoco Phillips certainly was not the first and wont be the last. One could say his first mistake was investing in Berkshire itself.

And he's not afraid to publicly admit his fault and accept blame for those mistakes. Rather refreshing, compared to the CEO comments in most of the other annual reports I've read.

I don't like that BYD seems to be dependent on cheap labor to be competitive; hopefully that will be a short term situation.

I find it very ironic that a former communist owned car company could be turned around and become world-leading in a short time, simply because it just adapted to free market principles : make something the people want, and can afford. This guy soundsm more like a 21st Century Henry Ford than anyone currently based in Detroit.

All the while the rest of the world are pointing and laughing at the seemingly poor build quality and lack of 'badge', this company will sell millions of cars and gradually reinvest the R&D to make them better. This is what the Japanese did 30 years ago, and what the Koreans have been doing for the last 20. It's a much sounder business strategy than taking the same old rubbish and updating the styling every year, then trying to move it with special incentives and deep discounting, all while using advertising to evoke the memories of a bygone era, and lobbying the government for more handouts. GM will go the way of British Leyland, and BYD will go the way of Toyota.

I didn't know Buffett invested in BYD. Also, I didn't know BYD makes electric cars.

BYD produces tin-can cars. They are made of crap and have no safety. Technologies and design used by Chinese car manufacturers are stolen from other manufacturers (except for some engines, which are licensed from Japanese car makers).

Most people who just want a cheap electric car probably won't care. And that's their great strength.

* Why Warren Buffett is investing in Electric Car Company BYD * Because the electric car got backed by gordon brown and perhaps other governments. Tis a fascad, you don't get innovation from the expected.