Our two favorite billionaires with major interests in green cars, Warren Buffet and T. Boone Pickens, have made headlines recently. First up:

Warren Buffet
In 2008 Buffet made a $230 million investment for 10% of the Chinese automaker BYD (Build Your Dreams).  Fast forward two years and in a letter to shareholders Buffet has valued that investment at $1.99 billion. Quite the return on investment!

Last year Buffet told a group of business student that he believed in 20 years all cars on the road will be electric.  What does the Oracle of Omaha know that we don’t?

BYD is planning to launch the F3DM plug-in hybrid in the US late this year (more likely early 2011). This car has amazing numbers; 60 mile electric range and 205 generator range for a total 265 mile range.  All for around $22,000… Perhaps this is why Buffet is so bullish!

 

 

T. Boone Pickens
At the same time Buffet was investing $230 million into BYD about 400 miles south in Oklahoma T. Boone Pickens was launching the Pickens Plan.  An ambitious plan to use domestic natural gas in transportation, and replace natural gas fired electric plants with wind power from the Midwest.

Nineteen months and $62 million of his personal dollars later Pickens has decided to change strategy. He says he’s found that Americans are too much in love with their cars. So, the Pickens Plan is taking aim at the heavy duty trucking industry.

The new plan is to convert 8 million 18-wheelers on the road to CNG. This would reduce US oil demand by 2.5 million barrels per day.  Not bad… and probably a much easier plan to implement by targeting fleets instead of consumers. But if you take a look at Boone’s history, it’s no guess that this is just the tip of the iceberg for his CNG plans.

 

• electric
• cng
• Car
• Plug-In
• BYD
• Compressed Natural Gas
• Pickens Plan
• Warren Buffet
• T Boone
• Clean Energy