Byton to chomp into EV market

China-based electric car start-up Byton has raised US$500 million to take on other EV makers like Tesla.

Its first prototypes are due out in April 2019, with pilot production starting in the first half of 2019 and the first mass production model to be launched later the same year.

Byton officially opened its global headquarters in Nanjing, China, on June 11, and is working with a Silicon Valley research centre and a Munich design facility.

The company says its new capital is from FAW Group, Tus-Holdings, CATL and others.

“The success of this funding round highlights how diversified strategic investors will further expand Byton’s circle of friends and broaden our development opportunities,” Byton president and co-founder Daniel Kirchert says.

“Byton is establishing a new benchmark for auto start-ups with four essential ‘must haves’, namely technology, product, capital and factory.”

The company revealed its first vehicle, an electric SUV, at January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

It has followed that up with the unveiling of its electric “K-Byte” sedan concept at the CES Asia 2018 show in Shanghai, China, from June 13-15.

All Byton’s vehicles will have the “Byte” name, the SUV retrospectively called the “M-Byte”.

Autonomous technology is likely to be included in Byton’s first vehicles which can use facial recognition, voice control and gestures or touch. Vehicles are expected to have a 400km range (71kWh battery) or 520km range (95kWh battery).

Byton is led by former executives from Tesla, BMW, Nissan, Apple and Google. It expects to launch in China by 2019 and in the United States and Europe by 2020.