E-car maker Byton faces extinction

The Chinese company is closing its site in Munich.
News by Tom Schmidtgen Tom Schmidtgen · Stuttgart, 08. February 2021

The Chinese company is closing its site in Munich.

Apparently, things are not going as well at Byton as was recently announced. The Munich plant is to be closed - rent has not been paid for months, reports the Automobilwoche. Byton's design and development center was last located in Ismaning. However, the Chinese company is said to have stopped paying. The CEO Daniel Kirchert is even said to have fled to Hong Kong. The Munich I public prosecutor's office has issued a warrant for his arrest for delaying insolvency, writes the BILD.

Apparently, no more money was flowing into the start-up from China because investors were holding back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Byton had hoped to raise half a billion dollars from Japanese and South Korean investors last year. But the financing round fell through. 60,000 vehicles of the M-Byte SUV type had already been pre-ordered, writes t3n. The first cars were due to roll off the production line this year. 70 people worked at the Ismaning plant because of the failed financing round, writes BILD. Almost all employees worldwide were made redundant. In addition to Kirchert, other top managers have apparently fled, and the designer of the Byton prototype, Benoit Jacob, is no longer with the company. But at least the car could survive. A new investor has stepped in and is preparing series production in Nanjing, China, with a new management team.


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