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Only three Chinese automakers have set up their booths at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, including three-year-old Byton, who brought the production model of his first SUV.
The M-Byte electric battery was designed on the idea of being a smartphone vehicle – the name of the company is a mix of "bytes on wheels" – and its most striking feature is a huge screen of Curved dashboard, which extends one side of the cockpit to the other.
Daniel Kirchert, co-founder and CEO of the Chinese auto startup, said his founding vision was to be a smart device on wheels, and that Byton is convinced that this is what the next generation of conductors.
"We can already see it today, if you look in traffic and in traffic jams, everyone is using their smartphone, nobody is using the infotainment features built into their car because they are so much below what you ship. your smart device, "Kirchert told Yahoo Finance UK.
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Over the next five to ten years, transformations such as autonomous driving will completely change our relationship with the car. "What are you going to do with your time in the car?" Kirchert said. "That's why we had this idea to create a digital show."
He sees a paradigm shift away from the importance of power, control and manipulation to give more power to the data in the car and the car as a digital platform. Kichert says that the younger generation, born in 1990, places more importance on internal experience than on scope and performance.
The company Byton, based in Nanjing, was founded in 2016 – initially in the form of a joint venture called Future Mobility, supported by Tencent, Foxconn and Harmony Auto – by Kirchert and Carsten Breitfeld, native of Bavaria, recently left join the rival Faraday Future. It has a research and development base in Germany, where the car was designed, and a technology center in Silicon Valley.
Kirchert believes that his electric SUV should compete primarily with the three premium German brands – Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volkswagen – whose entry price is $ 45,000 (£ 36,511).
"I think if you put it alongside high-end German brands, you will not lose perspective on the know-how, quality and beauty of design," he said.
The Byton M-Byte concept is unveiled Wednesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany, Germany. Photo: Wolfgang Rattay
The start-up is closing its fundraising for an estimated $ 500 million and has raised about $ 820 million in shares. He also received a "significant amount" of "support, grants and loans from local governments, which helped us build a factory".
The plant, which cost $ 1.5 billion, is expected to produce 300,000 units a year.
The electric SUV, with a range of 250 km and a battery of 71 kWh, will come into production at the end of this year. They plan to start shipments to China in mid-2020 and will start making pre-orders in Europe and North America next year for shipments in 2021.
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The interior really feels like a meeting place, and would make sense if you are sitting in a traffic jam in Beijing, but could be embarrassing or even dangerous on more difficult roads – or on the German motorway.
Kirchert, however, said: "The way we designed it keeps your eyes in a straight line with the touchpad and the screen," he said. "You do not have to look down on a central control panel, the important things are happening in your field of view."
That a car can pass from one idea to a three-year production model says a lot about China. "Our case is of course a bit special because we bring a lot of know-how from the established upscale industry." Kirchert and his former co-founder are both former guys from BMW.
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"I think that the automotive industry in general, after 30 years of collaboration, has finally started to evolve rapidly and that more and more companies are dramatically reaching global standards," said Kirchert.
He attributes China's speed and energy to the achievement of some key factors.
"People are willing to work very hard, they are ready to leave their big corporate positions and start up startups. So you have this state of mind, this dynamic, this spirit, "he said. "And of course, you have a capital market that is evolving with that and you have the government that strongly supports that direction."
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