2021 Byton M-Byte First Look

2021 Byton M-Byte First Look

2021 Byton M-Byte First Look

Does This New EV Brand Have What It Takes to Succeed?

It's clear that some concept cars will never see the light of day, but we've been impressed with the progress of the all-electric Byton M-Byte SUV. The new automaker's milestones have been realistic, and it's been steadily ticking off boxes on its checklist, such as opening its own production facility in Nanjing, China. Moreover, instead of locating its R&D and manufacturing centers in a single place, it built the company to be international, with distributed offices in China and the United States plus an upcoming European facility. Finally, the leadership at Byton comes from the automotive and manufacturing world, bringing considerable knowledge and expertise to the M-Byte EV project.

But wait a minute. What exactly is the M-Byte anyway?

2021 Byton M-Byte First Look

Introducing the M-Byte

Byton's first product is a four-seat electric vehicle that looks like a beefed-up hatchback, though the company considers it an SUV. The M-Byte is a few inches longer than the smallish Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV, but its exterior dimensions are otherwise similar. It will likely roll on massive 22-inch tires yet be optimized for efficient driving around town and at highway speeds.

The M-Byte and its future sedan counterpart, the K-Byte, will share a skateboard-like structure that locates the battery, suspension and powertrain components down below the passenger compartment. The body, whether SUV or sedan, rests on top of that. The M-Byte will be offered with either rear- or all-wheel drive, and there will be two available battery sizes — 71 kWh and 95 kWh — which should be good for 251 miles or around 323 miles per charge, respectively. These capacities and ranges are competitive with offerings from Audi, Jaguar and Tesla.

We're not particularly excited by the mechanical elements of the M-Byte because it's a fairly standard setup. There are already a number of upscale EV models on the road, with a few more coming soon. But we are excited about what's on the inside.

That Interior, Though

The signature feature of the M-Byte will be its 48-inch infotainment display, which works with a 7-inch steering-wheel-mounted touchpad and an 8-inch console-mounted touchpad. Both the driver and front passenger will be able to control just about every aspect of the M-Byte through those touchpads using multi-gesture controls. Byton points out that all functions that are government-regulated, such as the hazard lights and gear selector, still utilize physical controls. Additionally, a robust voice control system will work with many vehicle features.

A unique feature of the M-Byte is that when parked, the front seats will be able to pivot toward each other by 12 degrees to facilitate conversation. Rear-seat passengers, meanwhile, will have their own tablets. These tablets are networked to the car, enabling passengers to play games or tap into the M-Byte's infotainment features.

2021 Byton M-Byte First Look

With Amazon Alexa connectivity and Byton's own portal that corrals all your data and funnels it into the car, the M-Byte is more like the ultimate wearable accessory than a mere transportation device. Or at least that's what Byton hopes it will be. The idea is that by feeding the system all your data, you'll power a machine-learning process that provides customized navigation and scheduling support, charge alerts, and even help with shopping reminders.

Some EV manufacturers have delivered face-flattening performance, while a certain American startup has also pushed the envelope on the EV charging infrastructure. But the M-Byte's unique technology suite offers a glimpse of what the elusive "car of the future" might look like and how we'll interact with it.

Pricing and Release Date

Byton's initial pricing projections left us pleasantly surprised. As of this writing, the M-Byte is set to start at $45,000, which would undercut many competitors from traditional luxury brands. We've seen test mules driving around, and Byton has shown an "85 percent" production-ready model at various shows. Now we'll just have to wait until an actual 2021 M-Byte is available for testing, which likely won't happen until the 2020 calendar year.

Source:edmunds.com

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