Can Foxconn’s Cash Injection Help Chinese EV Maker Byton Come Back From The Dead?

The first time I heard of Byton was at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2018 where Byton debuted the M-Byte concept car. The interior design of the concept car was quite futuristic, with a 48-inch screen stretching from pillar to pillar, it puts Tesla’s screen to shame. 

At the time I just thought it was another electric car startup out of Silicon Valley. However, the concept car was a looker and loaded with technology, so I investigated the company a bit more. When I did, I discovered that Byton was a Chinese all-electric vehicle brand founded in 2017. 

Hit Hard By the Pandemic

While the company generated a lot of buzz coming out of CES, it was still in the early stages. Turns out it was also burning through a lot of cash. This means that when COVID hit, the company lacked the funding to move forward, and production stalled for much of 2020. 

In January 2021, Byton finally got the cash injection it needed, announcing a strategic partnership with Foxconn to accelerate the production of the M-Byte SUV. According to Bloomberg, the manufacturing deal with Foxconn could be worth around $200 million. 

According to The Verge, Foxconn — which has been eager to get into electric vehicles — will provide Byton with “advanced manufacturing technology, operation management expertise and supply chain resources.” The two will apparently work together to get Byton’s M-Byte electric SUV across the finish line into production for the Chinese market in 2022.

In anticipation of that happening, let’s take a look at what we can expect from the M-Byte:

The Byton M-Byte

Byton actually has two cars in its lineup. M-Byte is the closer to production SUV and the other is a four-door sedan still in the concept stage called K-Byte. Here we’ll focus on the M-Byte since that car will launch first. 

There will be two versions of the M-Byte, rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive. The single motor rear wheel drive version will produce about 272 hp, and the AWD version will be dual motors and spin out about 408 hp. The AWD version will go from zero to 60 mph in about 5.3 seconds and will haul you for 325 miles on a single charge. The M-Byte is not an electrified rocket ship, instead it focuses on technology and user experience. 

The focal point here is definitely the screen, stretching across the entire dash. It differentiates itself from all the other competitors by using one large screen instead of multiple small screens. This allows users to view information without any interruptions. Apart from showing the essential driving gauges, it serves as an enormous tablet. Users can browse through the Internet or watch movies. Or both simultaneously. 

One of my favorites features is the meditation mode. It utilizes the entire screen to display calming scenery along with soft soothing music. Knowing how bad the traffic in big Chinese cities can get, I wouldn’t mind adding five minutes of meditation to my daily commute before I hit the rush hour traffic. 

All the entertainment functions of the screen can only be used when the car is parked. And users can set the big screen to turn off and only display the essentials while driving to reduce distractions. And the vehicle is also equipped with driver assist technologies such as pedestrian detection and emergency breaking. 

Apart from the center screen there are also two additional smaller screens. One is located on the steering wheel and does not rotate with steering input, it always remains upright. This screen controls and displays all the essential functions of the vehicle such as radio, seating positions and air conditioning. Alongside the screen there are some physical buttons for volume and voice recognition. On the other side of the screen are the PRND shifter buttons. 

The other screen is in the center console and is intended for passengers to control the large dash screen. 

The Journey Ahead 

Prior to the pandemic, and even during the pandemic, the brand had aspirations of entering the North American market, establishing Byton Cars California, LLC in 2019. However, given the financial state of the company, as well as the state of US and China relations, the hope of seeing this futuristic SUV on US soil is pretty slim. It’s likely that it will focus on the Chinese market first. 

But even that is not an easy feat. On this site, we have already mentioned numerous other Chinese EV brands that are trying to get a piece of the pie. Even if Byton is able to turn out a really cool car with top-notch technology, it will have to face the negative consumer perception that has developed over the past year. Consumers may be wary of purchasing a vehicle from a company that is not in a solid financial state.