However, the company has made huge inroads into the market, he says, thanks to the company's advanced battery technology, a lot of help and encouragement from the Chinese government and hard work from the company's employees.

"In addition, our European team has taken on staff from many different backgrounds and a lot of experience from around the world particularly over the past five years."

The company's buses have also been awarded EU certification for their low emissions, he says, which means there are no restrictions on their being sold in EU member states.

BYD's depth of experience in China has also helped it to expand in Europe, Wang says. Shenzhen has said it will replace all its diesel buses with pure electric city buses over the next three years, said to be a world first for any city.

Wang says he is considering three core strategies in Europe.

First, BYD is looking at building at least one electric bus assembly plant in Europe when the time is considered ripe.

"We believe there will be new developments on this soon," Wang says, without elaborating.

BYD also plans to work with local manufacturers, colleges or academic institutions to obtain R&D resources.

"Third, we are working on taking BYD into the new-energy passenger car market in Europe."

Wang says the economic slowdown has had little impact on BYD.

"Although the overall economy is slowing, that does not mean every sector is affected. In fact, some emerging markets remain dynamic."

BYD is engaged in three fields: motor vehicles, information technology and new energy. Motor vehicle sales have been doing well for many months, and BYD has strong experience in the IT industry and can incorporate innovation based on vertical integration.

"So we have made many breakthroughs in Internet Plus and car networking, like cloud services, Carpad and so on."

As an expert on the advisory body to the government, Wang has urged the country's leaders to expand development of new-energy vehicles in the logistics industry to meet the needs of logistics and distribution vehicles.

Wang has also advised the government to introduce a plan to develop pure electric mining vehicles, airport vehicles, harbor transport vehicles and other special vehicles.

The government's policies on new-energy cars have been systematic, thorough and well oriented and have thus won plaudits internationally, he says.

"It's unprecedented. For example, just look at the purchase tax relief policy."

China has phased out such taxes on 20 models of pure electric cars and six hybrid cars.

"And we think public transport should be given more priority with financial and policy support, especially for buses and taxis, because they have the biggest fuel consumption and emissions."

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn