Byton is a Chinese all-electric vehicle automotive brand established in 2017 and incorporated in Hong Kong, co-founded by former BMW and Nissan Motor executives. Byton unveiled its first concept car to the public in January 2018. The company is currently running a trial shop at its Nanjing headquarters where drivable prototypes are built. It plans to introduce its M-Byte SUV model first, with the start of production scheduled for late 2019. The SUV will go on sale in China end of 2019, followed by the U.S. and European markets in the second half of 2020. In June 2020, however, the company suspended production for reorganization for a planned six month period.
Company
In 2016, Tencent, together with Foxconn and luxury-car dealer Harmony New Energy Auto founded Future Mobility, a car startup that aims to sell all-electric fully autonomous premium cars in 2020. The company was co-founded by Carsten Breitfeld, CEO, and Daniel Kirchert, president. It is a subsidiary of China Harmony New Energy Auto Holding Limited. In January 2017, the company announced its first manufacturing facility would be located in Nanjing, China at a cost of US$1.7 billion and an initial production capacity of 150,000 cars. In 2018, Chinese state ownedFirst Auto Works invested a “significant amount of money” into the EV startup Byton. In April 2020, the company furloughed about half of the 450 employees who work at its North American headquarters. In June 2020, the company suspended production for reorganization for a planned six month period.
Products
The company announced its ambition to launch three electric car models by 2022.
Naming
Byton's cars are named as a variation on the term "Byte", such as "M-Byte" and "K-Byte".
The Byton M-Byte is an all-electric battery-powered SUV concept car. It was first announced is the mid-sized Byton crossover, but only in concept form, with sales expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2019 in China, Europe and the US. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas on 7 January 2018.
The Byton K-Byte is an all-electric battery-powered sedan concept car. In June 2018, Byton unveiled the Byton K-Byte Concept sedan at CES Asia previewing a luxury electric sedan.
