Byton was a Chinese-German all-electric vehicle automotive

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

established in 2017 and incorporated in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, co-founded by former

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

and

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

executives. Byton unveiled its first concept car to the public in January 2018. It planned to introduce its M-Byte SUV model first, with the start of production and sales scheduled for late 2019, however developmental delays and financial troubles repeatedly pushed back the launch. In June 2020, the company decided to suspend operations for corporate reorganization for a planned six-month period. In 2021, Byton entered bankruptcy, and its work with manufacturing partner

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...

was halted indefinitely.

History

In 2016,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

, together with

and luxury-car dealer Harmony New Energy Auto started a new joint venture called Future Mobility, a car startup that aimed to sell all-electric fully autonomous premium cars in 2020. The company was co-founded by Carsten Breitfeld,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, and Daniel Kirchert, president. It was 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 Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, China at a cost of US$1.7 billion and an initial production capacity of 150,000 cars. Around 2017, Future Mobility was renamed to Byton. In 2018, Chinese state owned First Auto Works invested a “significant amount of money” into Byton. CEO and co-founder Carsten Breitfeld left Byton in April 2019. Fellow co-founder Daniel Kirchert subsequently assumed the position of CEO. Breitfeld later revealed that he had left Byton over the active interference with the company by the Chinese government through FAW. In April 2020, the company furloughed about half of the 450 employees who worked at its North American headquarters. In June 2020, the company decided to suspend operations for corporate reorganization for a planned six-month period. On September 9, 2020, Nanjing Shengteng Automobile Technology Co, Ltd. was established as the new owner of the brand. FAW Equity Investment (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. holds 23.333% of the shares in Byton, and Duan Lianxiang holds another 6.6667%. In October 2020, it was announced that CEO and co-founder Daniel Kirchert had left the company due to its continued financial troubles. In January 2021, it was announced that Taiwanese manufacturer

would enter into a strategic partnership with Byton. Foxconn planned on investing US$200 million into Byton. Foxconn was expected to assist Byton with manufacturing and supply chain management. In April 2021, Byton's German subsidiary entered bankruptcy. In July 2021, Byton suspended operations in China. In September 2021, Nikkei reported that Byton's manufacturing partner Foxconn was putting the project on hold due to continuing financial issues at Byton, effectively putting operations on hold indefinitely.

Products

The company announced its ambition to launch three electric car models by 2022.

Byton M-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 (CES) in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on 7 January 2018.

Byton K-Byte

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.

References

External links