Was this VN Holden Commodore the first EV in China?

The first electric vehicle bought by Chinese EV giant BYD could have been a Holden Commodore VN.

It might also have also been the first EV publicly sold in China.

Sound preposterous? Well, folks, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

When BYD (Build Your Dreams) founder Wang Chuan Fu was looking to expand out of batteries into complete vehicles in 1997, he bought an EV called a BJ6490D.

It was a Holden Commodore VN station wagon, albeit with its ICE drivetrain ripped out and replaced by a combination of Chinese and American EV components.

What was the VN doing there and how did it become an EV?

Great questions, which are dealt with here on the China Car History website.

According to the story written by Brisbane-based Chinese car fanatic Sam Faulkner, a company called Beijing Travel Vehicle Works was originally responsible for importing VN componentry to China from Holden.

The standard model was dubbed the BJ6490. It was converted to left-hand drive, powered by a 2.2-litre engine and also had a raised ride height.

According to retired Holden executive Ian McCleave, who we contacted separately about the Chinese VN, there could have been a Toyota HiLux chassis residing under the Commodore body!

“The story that I recall is from around 1989 or 1990 and Holden’s chief engineer Don Wylie was approached at the time by a locally-based Chinese company that was bringing in spares from Asia,” McCleave recalled.

“They had relationships back in China and they wanted to buy CKD kits … so they could build a VN-based car in China.

“We did actually sell them kits of VNs … and looking at the pictures I realise they could have been built on to HiLux chassis.

“It sounds pretty far-fetched, but that’s what they planned to do; stitch the VN body on to the HiLux chassis, which would have been pretty high-riding but would have coped well with the rough Chinese roads.”

McCleave also believes the 2.2-litre engine referred to could be the General Motors Family II engine that was built at Holden’s engine plant in Port Melbourne.

But McCleave admits the EV part of the story is something he was not aware of.

As told by China Car History, an engineer by the name of Yuan Jia Zhen working at Beijing Second Auto Works judged the BJ6490 a great basis for an EV because the wagon body allowed so many golf cart batteries to be stuffed inside.

The result was a car named the BJ6940D that had a range of about 100km and a top speed of 92km/h.

It was this vehicle Yuan convinced Wang to buy for 140,000 RMB (about $A30,000 today) when he heard he was considering importing an EV to research the technology.

As the China Car History story relates: “According to Mr Yuan this was therefore the first public sale of an electric vehicle in China”.

If that’s true, then there’s some added piquancy to it all considering China is now a key driver of global EV take-up, and BYD is amongst the foremost manufacturers of EVs and is considering building them in Australia.

But the story doesn’t end there as BYD acquired a second BJ6490D that was later converted to hybrid power. More modern batteries delivered this car a range of 200km, which is pretty respectable.

Yuan spotted it being used as unregistered transport within BYD’s Shenzen factory premises when he visited in 2002.

Anyway, it’s a fascinating story and one we hope we’ll be able to add more detail to in the future.