Uber going electric with BYD

"It's good for BYD to link its image with one of the Silicon Valley's most dynamic companies," said Yunshi Wang, co-director of the US-China Zero Emission Vehicle Policy Lab at UC, Davis.

"It will certainly help BYD sell its EVs (electric vehicles) and the e6 can be followed by BYD's other models as well," he said.

Uber is connected with new technologies and innovations, said Wang, linking with Uber could bring more exposure to BYD's electric cars.

In addition, the data collected by Uber can serve as a study reference for BYD, he added.

According to the program's advertising posted by BYD Motors, the company's US branch, on its Facebook page, BYD's e6 can run up to 186 miles on a single charge and it can be leased to own or on shorter term leases.

BYD Motors spokesman Matthew Jurjevich declined to comment.

Although BYD's electric taxi e6 is only being used in a pilot program, its electric bus k9 has already been making tracks on California roads.

Stanford University has deployed 13 k9 buses on its campus, and in Southern California, BYD delivered another two k9s to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in April of last year.

Snower told China Daily that his company was "close" to striking a BYD electric bus deal. "We anticipate selling the buses soon," he said, without disclosing any more details.