New car brand from China: Byton. China has given the
world yet another car brand. The latest baby is called Byton, which stands for
'Bytes on Wheels', they will make a series of high-end "connected"
electric cars.
The Byton brand is owned by a startup called FMC,
short for 'Future Mobility Corporation'. The company is managed by a clan of
non-Chinese executives headed by Daniel Kirchert, a German who used to work for
the Brilliance-BMW joint venture.
Byton has ambitious plans. Their first car will be a
mid-sized #SUV. It will debut in January 2018 on the CES in Las Vegas and
launch on the Chinese car market in Q4 2019. Next up are an MPV in 2020 and a
sedan in 2021.
FMC currently employs 200 people. Their headquarters
and future factory are in Nanjing, in China's Jiangsu province. They also have
a design center in Munich, Germany, and an R&D center in Silicon Valley.
Construction of the factory will start at 8 September, or so the company says. Investment in the factory and related
facilities will be US$ 1.78 billion. Eventual annual capacity will be 300,000
cars. GMC says they have completed a Series A round of financing for US$ 100
million and that they will complete their Series B in the second half of 2018.
The SUV will seat four people. It is 4.8 meters
long, 2 meters wide, and has a wheelbase of 2.95 meters. It will be equipped
with technology for Level 4 autonomous driving. FMC claims a range of 350
kilometers with a 60 kWh battery pack and 500 kilometers with a 90 kWh pack.
The dash comes with an enormous screen that is
almost as wide as the whole car, and a techy steering wheel with yet another
screen on it. It all seems a bit too distracting, but then again, it will be
highly autonomous.
