“We have set the ambitious goal of changing the world of mobility in much the same way that the iPhone has changed the world of communication,” said Breitfeld during a visit to the BYTON Design and Development Center in Munich. “It makes us proud that this ambitious goal is obviously not only supported by our investors and employees, but also by global media, industry experts and technology fans. The positive feedback is a clear sign for us that not only our concept, but also the timing is just right. People in big cities in China, USA and Europe want to make the most of their time in the car thereby using the same technical possibilities, apps, and online offers like at home or at work. Our customers want to enjoy the time in the car, no matter what the traffic looks like. Currently, no car is designed as consistently as ours. With all that, BYTON, which has its headquarters in China and development and design centers around the world, has a tremendous advantage.”
From the beginning of the year, the BYTON Concept, a survey of an almost-ready-for production-series Premium SUV, already thrilled people at CES in Las Vegas during the Milan Design Week at Auto China in Beijing and in Munich as part of a Europe-wide roadshow. It will stop in Oslo and Amsterdam in June and July.
Buoyed by the first noticeable successes, the BYTON team is now preparing the next steps for series production in Nanjing, China. In a few days, the new company headquarters will be inaugurated there, the construction work for the production facilities is already going on and the prototype construction has brought the first development vehicles onto the road. The oldest and most renowned Chinese automotive company – First Automotive Works, FAW for short, joined us as one of the first investors recently. FAW acts as the lead investor in the second round of investment and participates in BYTON with a three-digit million amount (US dollars). The corresponding contract was signed in May 2018.
“The Chinese automobile market offers excellent conditions for our company. The infrastructure developments, the market forecasts and the keen interest of the people in our products strengthen us enormously. Of course, our deep understanding of the Chinese market as a basis for our economic success also helps us,” explains Dr. med. Daniel Kirchert, President and co-founder of BYTON.
In 2019, the first BYTON Premium SUVs are to be rolled off the production line in China and sold in the country of production. By 2020, the first BYTONs will also be available in the US and Europe. This is followed by a sports sedan in the premium format, which, like the first model, is electrically powered. The design study, which will be presented at CES Asia in Shanghai in mid-June 2018, gives an overview of this model. As a third model, a seven-seat MPV will complete the first BYTON model family.
