Chinese smart vehicle start-up raises $500m
Byton, a China-based manufacturer of smart electric cars backed by Legend Capital, has secured a $500 million Series B funding round from a group of domestic strategic investors.
Participants included state-owned carmaker Faw Group, lithium battery specialist Contemporary Amperex Technology, and Tus-Holdings, the cleantech-focused operator of Tsinghua University Science Park. The capital is planned to advance technology development and a mass production program.
"As a world leader in smart mobility, we aim to build Byton into a global premium brand with 'China root, global reach' as the core of our development strategy," said Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and co-founder at Byton, said in a statement. "By combining our expertise in R&D and traditional car-making with innovative Internet technologies, we aspire to pioneer a smart mobility revolution."
Byton management is comprised of former senior executives at BMW, Tesla Motors, Google, and Apple. Focus areas include electric powertrain, intelligent connectivity, autonomous driving, user interface, and supply chain management. An initial batch of prototype models is set to roll out in April 2019 for testing, with a pilot production program starting in the first half of 2019.
The investment coincides with confirmation of Nanjing as the company’s global headquarters. Sales operations extend across bases in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, while research and design centers are located in the US and Germany, respectively. In addition to Legend, Series A backers included Harmony Auto, League Automotive Technologies, and Chengdu Group.
Uptake of smart cars in China is expected to be driven by smart city initiatives aimed at reducing urban congestion and government pressure to reduce vehicle emissions, including a plan for electric vehicles (EV) to represent about one-fifth of nationwide car sales by 2025. According to the International Energy Agency, China was by far the biggest EV-hybrid market in 2016, but sales amounted to only 336,000 clean cars during the year compared to some 28 million units of conventional models.
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