Warren Buffett, legendary investor and one of the world's richest people, is about to leverage his part-ownership of China's largest battery manufacturer to deliver a shot in the arm to America's ailing auto industry.

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Here, apparently, is how he plans to do it: BYD autos, one of his few overseas investments, into which he plunged $230 million in 2008, may finally bring Chinese-made electric vehicles to the U.S.

But batteries are very heavy and therefore expensive to ship thousands of miles! Also, Buffett is a known patriot, so if his Chinese holding makes all that stuff overseas and just ships it over here, that kind of contributes to the ongoing decline of the American empire.

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These reasons — plus a bunch of others that can probably only be expressed in a spreadsheet — convinced Buffett to build BYD's latest battery plant in a massive new "energy park" in what used to be a General Motors plant, in Michigan.

The results of this will include "thousands" of new jobs and a massive boost to local tax revenues.