Byton said to restart operation

Beijing (Gasgoo)- China’s electric vehicle startup Byton will restart its operation soon as its board of directors and board of shareholders have approved the company’s restructuring plan, according to a local report, which cited sources close to the matter.

From March to June, 2020, the cash-strapped company has been repeatedly reported to withhold salaries. Financial pressure piled up since an expected new financing round failed to complete. Consequently, it said at the end of June that it would suspend operations for the next 6 months, starting from July 1. From then on, the startup would have no more than 100 employees at its China facilities while its offices in North America and Germany had initiated bankruptcy filing processes.

Byton M-Byte; photo credit: Byton

Public information shows that Byton has completed four financing rounds with a total sum of RMB8.4 billion. The company once said that new financing round was delayed by the pandemic. FAW Group, a shareholder of the company was said to cooperate with other investors on the financing to accelerate the mass production of the M-Byte, its first model.

Two months after its restructuring announcement, Byton registered a new company named Nanjing Shengteng Automobile Technology Co.,Ltd.” (hereinafter Shengteng) with a registered capital of RMB1.5 billion. The new company’s businesses cover the R&D of auto parts, the sale of new energy complete vehicles, electric accessories for use in electric vehicles and the PHEV-specific engines, the development of AI-enhanced software, and other businesses.

Just a month after the registration of the new company, Dr. Daniel Kirchert, the start-up’s cofounder and CEO was reported to leave the company and Qingfen Ding, Byton’s chief of staff will temporarily fill Daniel’s role. Carsten Breitfeld, another cofounder of the company, left Byton in early 2019 and became the CEO of Faraday Future, another electric car startup.