The end of Byton’s electric car dreams?
Business & Technology
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Byton is one of China’s many EV startups whose future once seemed bright — but is now trying to stay afloat amidst a huge field of competitors:
- The company has withheld salaries and paused production with its funds dried up.
- It is also engaging in bankruptcy hearings, in accordance with a prominent creditor’s demands.
The context: Founded in 2016 by former executives from Nissan and BMW, Byton has long had benefactors like Foxconn, Tencent, state-owned FAW Group, and the Nanjing government to assist with its finances.
- But those investors want to wean Byton off; according to Caixin reporting, they “might have lost interest” as they pivot to other electric vehicle ventures.
- Those investments, it seems, didn’t produce much: the company unveiled its first concept car in 2018, scheduled for production the following year — but to this day, no cars have been released, triggered in part by the pandemic.
Also relevant: While there’s little to show at Byton and many other EV makers who haven’t made a single sale — think Evergrande — a small number of Chinese brands are covering far too much ground for them to catch up: BYD, XPeng, and Li Auto recently reported that deliveries are up 2-3x in the last year.
