China’s Byton has finally unveiled its M-Byte
electric crossover in production guise at the Frankfurt Motor Show, though it
will take a while until it starts rolling off the assembly line. The EV startup plans to deliver
the first cars to Chinese customers in the middle of 2020, followed by Europe
and North America in 2021. The company also says it will start taking
pre-orders in these two markets in 2020.
Byton is confident it can start production of M-Byte
for the Chinese market in the middle of 2020 although it hasn’t finished yet
tooling its plant in Nanjing. It’d better stick to its promises, too, since it
has currently over 50,000 reservations from all over the world.
The main selling point of the premium SUV is the
48-inch curved display — the world’s largest in a production car. It seems to
have been carried over unchanged from the concept and is controlled by two
other displays: a 7-inch touch screen located in the middle of the steering
wheel and an 8-inch one between the front seats. Besides these two screens,
multiple interaction modes with the vehicle will be offered, including touch
gesture, voice and air gesture control, driver’s face recognition, as well as
physical buttons.
On the outside, the production model tones down the
design of the M-Byte Concept, but not by much. The rearview cameras are dropped
for more conventional side mirrors, the headlights received two “moustaches”
acting as LED DRLs, the bumpers have been revised and the door handles are now
visible, although they do feature a sleek pop-out solution.
Byton promises a very competitive drag coefficient
thanks to the low roofline and aerodynamically-optimized body featuring a fully
enclosed front fascia, flush door handles, and floating C-pillar design which
channels air flow around the greenhouse.
The entry-level M-Byte with rear-wheel drive is
powered by a single rear-mounted electric motor making 272 PS. A 72-kWh battery enables a driving range of 360 km as per
WLTP. There’s also a 4WD version with two electric motors rated at 300 kW (408
PS) that features a 95-kWh battery providing an estimated driving
range of 435 kilometers.
Depending on the region, Byton will offer fast DC
charging of up to 150 kW and AC charging between 3.7 and 22 kW. Using a 150 kW
charger, the battery can be brought up to 80 percent capacity in approximately
35 minutes. Prices for the M-Byte will start at € 45,000 (US$ 49,700)
in Europe, excluding VAT and local government subsidies.
