Coffee shops were the retail pioneers of Wi-Fi, flipping the switch to lure customers. But now some owners are pulling the plug. Some find that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line. Others want to preserve a friendly vibe and keep their establishments from turning into “Matrix”-like zombie shacks where people type and don't talk.

That shift could gather steam now that free Wi-Fi is less of a perk after coffee giant Starbucks stopped charging for it last month.

“There is now a market niche for not having Wi-Fi,” said Bryant Simon, a Temple University history professor and author of “Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks.”

And not just for Luddites. Dan and Nathalie Drozdenko turned off the Wi-Fi at their Los Angeles cafe when it malfunctioned. The complaints poured in, but so did the compliments: Lots of customers appreciated a wireless cup of joe at the Downbeat Cafe, a popular lunch spot in Echo Park.

“People come here because we don't offer it. They know they can get their work done and not get distracted,” Dan Drozdenko said.

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An upstart Chinese electric car company — best known for making cellphone batteries — will locate its North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, with plans to possibly expand into manufacturing in the United States in the years ahead.<

BYD Co., which employs 150,000 workers worldwide, will open here in late 2010 and plans to enter the U.S. electric car market about the same time, shipping its electric vehicles through the Port of Los Angeles.

The headquarters will be near Figueroa and 18th streets and will eventually have about 150 corporate employees, including managers, designers and engineers. City officials predict that the BYD corporate office could attract more than 750 indirect jobs through contractors and other support services.

Wang Chuan-fu, chairman of the Shenzhen, China, company, recently said that the company also will aggressively pursue markets for solar panels and battery storage for renewable energy supplies. Along with BYD's electric cars, all manufacturing will be done in China. If the company's initial foray into the U.S. market is successful, BYD's next step would be to build a distribution system and, eventually, manufacturing facilities in the United States for the cars, solar panels and batteries, said Senior Vice President Stella Li, who will run BYD's North American operation.