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BYTON completes winter test for all-electric SUV, aims to start production by end of the year

BYTON, a China-based EV startup, announced today that it completed its initial cold environment testing on M-BYTE prototypes, an all-electric SUV that it’s trying to bring to market by the end of the year.

As we previously reported, Byton was found by a bunch of executives from Tesla, BMW, and Nissan. It has several Chinese investors, including Tencent Holdings, which is now also an important investor in Tesla.

Last year, they secured $500 million in funding to bring their electric vehicles to market.

Those vehicles are the K-Byte, an all-electric and autonomous sedan, and the M-Byte, an all-electric and autonomous SUV.

In a new press release today, the company announced that they are one step closer to bringing the M-Byte to market after completing a cold environment test in Inner Mongolia, China:

“During testing in Inner Mongolia, M-Byte engineering prototypes were driven for thousands of test miles on open roads and specifically prepared tracks. BYTON tested the vehicles in multiple categories, including durability and powertrain calibration, while also focusing on key performance indicators related to chassis, body structure, battery system, air conditioning system, and more.”

They released a few pictures of the test and the latest M-Byte prototype:

Dr. Daniel Kirchert, CEO and co-founder of BYTON, commented on the results:

“The results from our winter program mark another development milestone in the M-Byte’s testing and verification. It demonstrates that we’re well on the road to our goal of production by the end of Q4 2019 and delivering premium smart vehicles on schedule.”

The company said that it also started deploying the M-Byte prototypes in North America even though they plan to focus on the Chinese market.

BYTON has been very present in the US and has been presenting itself as a global brand with plans to launch globally in 2020.

They have been promising some very interesting specs for a relatively low starting price of $45,000: a 71 kWh battery pack for 250 miles of range, 30 minutes fast-charging to 80%, 200 kW rear-wheel drive motor, and more.

Higher-end versions of the two vehicles with a 95 kWh battery pack for 325 miles of range and a dual motor all-wheel-drive system are also in the works. Unfortunately, they haven’t confirmed the price of the higher-end versions.

We got a test ride in an early prototype of the M-Byte last year.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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