- The Byton Ok-Byte was the second automotive deliberate from Chinese language EV startup Byton.
- Byton went bankrupt in 2023, with no vehicles ever reaching public sale.
- Two Ok-Byte idea fashions have been noticed in Northern California.
China’s auto sector could also be beneath fireplace for having too many automotive manufacturers serving not sufficient consumers, however that kind of insanity occurred right here within the U.S., too.
Let’s flash again to a few decade in the past, or perhaps a little earlier than that. Tesla’s dominance wasn’t fairly assured but. The Mannequin S and Mannequin X have been cool, however many assumed the Mannequin 3—and something past it—could be vaporware. If the longer term was electrical, it might be anyone’s recreation. Enterprise capitalists, disgruntled or bored auto engineers seeking new pastures and science geeks typically got here collectively to determine simply how they have been going to create an EV that’s gonna change the world.
And from that combination of personalities and cash got here some fairly fascinating issues. Like, do you bear in mind Coda? Or SF Motors? Or Fiskerthe primary time?
Maybe you bear in mind Byton—one other Silicon Valley startup that failed proper on the end line. This may-be automaker had plans for at the least two fashions. Its first mannequin would have been the Audi Q8 E-Tron-sized M-Byte, with the Ok-byte made to problem the Tesla Mannequin S.
True, Byton was successfully Chinese language, however it had an American HQ and a variety of expertise and staff from exterior of China. And that was properly earlier than the Chinese language auto trade was as established as it’s now, and earlier than commerce and political tensions with the U.S. reached a boiling level.
Again then, Byton aimed to launch right here whereas additionally launching in China; it had even already secured distribution licenses in California. The model additionally filed a patent for a three-seat EV with sliding doorways, however not a lot was ever proven exterior of the patent drawing.
Sadly, the model ran out of cash and went bankrupt earlier than the M-Byte might enter sequence manufacturing and distribution exterior of a handful of preproduction models. Its major manufacturing accomplice, Foxconn, declined to choose up the torch, and no different Chinese language EV firm was within the mental property. Byton furloughed half of its U.S. employees in 2020then remained a useless man strolling till it failed for good in 2023.
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Supply: Byton
However weirdly sufficient, examples of the Ok-Byte sedan idea nonetheless exist.
For the previous two years or so, the images of the 2 Ok-Byte ideas have been noticed in public someplace within the Bay Space. However these current pics from a couple of weeks in the past, seen on Reddit’s r/noticedpresent that this stuff are wanting a bit worse for put on.
The 2 Ok-Byte sedans are coated in mud and have chicken poop on them. The outside paint seems prefer it’s misplaced a variety of luster.
Now, I ought to be clear that these Ok-Byte sedans weren’t ever working and driving prototypes. I talked to an ex-Byton worker to determine the story behind this stuff, and so they mentioned these are doubtless both a non-moving styling buck or a “curler”—primarily a giant distant management automotive that might roll itself onto automobile show turntables or levels.
It doubtless doesn’t have all the production-level working gear to get it on the stage. The almost opaque glass means that these our bodies doubtless shouldn’t have interiors, though the web says there’s at the least one unit that did exist with an inside.
At the moment, Byton is barely a footnote in EV historical past. But it surely was forward of its time, too.
The M-Byte and Ok-Byte each featured full-width screens; again then, it appeared type of gaudy, however it’s not tremendous unusual to see this development applied on manufacturing vehicles at the moment, just like the Afeela and even the gas-powered Lincoln Nautilus. The steering wheel display screen is bizarre, however manufacturers like Li Auto have screens on the steering wheel, albeit not so massive and obnoxiously mounted.
These rotting prototypes make me marvel of a world that noticed Byton get on the highway could be like. Wouldn’t it have opened the door for extra Chinese language automobiles on U.S. roads? Would Tesla have been as prevalent a power within the EV world as it’s now? Would we be driving M-Byte crossovers and Ok-Byte sedans as an alternative of the Lucid Air or Tesla Mannequin S?
Or was Byton at all times destined to fail, since so far, Foxconn’s EV efforts within the U.S. have solely resulted in stalled expectations and damaged guarantees? In spite of everything, even when Byton had some type of Polestar-type launch, it might’ve confronted anti-China tariffs anyway.
I suppose we’ll by no means know. Pour one out for Byton.
Contact the writer: Kevin.Williams@insideevs.com
