To broaden its presence in the U.S. markets for electric vehicles, BYD Motors has named transportation expert Eva Lerner-Lam as director of eastern U.S. business.

Lerner-Lam, who has spent her 40-year career developing transportation technologies in both the public and private sectors in the United States and China, will build up the operations of the New York-based office and drive regional sales of BYD’s entire lineup of electric vehicles, including but not limited to electric buses and coaches, long-range electric taxis, eTrucks and battery-electric forklifts.

“We are delighted to have Eva join our team,” said President Stella Li. “Her background, experience and stature in the transportation industry are essential to helping us with this critical stage of our business development.”

Citing the discussions at this month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, Lerner-Lam noted that fossil fuel vehicles will be steadily replaced by environmentally responsible solutions. “The time has come for electric vehicles and BYD is ready to meet the growing demand,” Lerner-Lam said. “It’s a very exciting opportunity to take technology that was developed in China—and leveraged and matured in large scale there—and adapt them to American standards, lifestyles and infrastructures.”

Together with Assistant General Manager Carlos Antunes, who has over 30 years of experience in the transportation industry, Lerner-Lam will continue BYD’s international efforts to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure, open regional facilities and plants to create jobs, and deliver not only green vehicles but other green-tech products like energy storage stations. “We intend to build a responsive, efficient eastern U.S. operation to fulfill the needs of consumers, job-seekers and product manufacturers,” she said.

“The game-changing technology is already here,” she added. “It just needs to be applied and distributed.