The World's First Plug-in Electric Hybrid...

...is Chinese.  And the most impressive thing about it is its battery: half-charge takes only 10 minutes, while a full charge is 8-9 hours and allows the driver to go 100km before it taps into its fuel reserves.  The car made its North American debut at the Detroit Motor Show this week, and is expected to be available in the Western world by 2011.  It's already been on sale for a month in China though, and Business Week has already gotten the chance to take it out for a test drive (video).

The F3DM is built by BYD ("Build Your Dreams"), a Shenzhen-based, HK-listed company that used to specialize in batteries.  If you've heard of BYD before, it's probably because Warren Buffet bought a 10% stake in it for $230 million last September.