Byton, the car brand with the 48-inch screen, declared bankrupt

The start-ups dedicated to developing electric cars do not always achieve the success they seek. At least, not all of them. We know that several of them are reaching international markets and winning the attention of investors and buyers, making their vehicles popular. Others, however, fall short halfway and fail to achieve the final success they are looking for.

Byton began to gain some presence in the international market when it launched a prototype that was quite interesting. It even became the car with the largest interior screen in the industry. The car presented in 2019, the Byton M-Byte, used a 48-inch screen, which occupied the entire dashboard.

Founded in 2016

This Chinese company was founded in 2016 thanks to the efforts of former executives of Nissan and BMW. Its headquarters were established in the city of Nanjing, where the model that caused such a stir at the time began to be developed. But when work began to finalize the concept version and move on to the production model, the pandemic arrived, and this was felt in the company’s accounts.

Although the brand claimed it had 50,000 orders for the model, the lack of activity in the markets meant the money never arrived. And this led to the first bankruptcy. But with the end of the pandemic, investors seemed to return to backing the brand. However, the capital contributed was not enough, and only a few pre-production models were manufactured.

The economic problems of the brand’s parent company, Nanjing Zhixing New Energy Vehicle Technology Development, meant that production of this model could not move forward. The contribution of several companies from the Nanjing region, interested in producing this model, failed to overcome those problems, and the company’s closure became a reality this July.

This company behind this electric SUV, which aimed to be groundbreaking, is the only one to have failed in recent months. In the Netherlands, Lightyear, another company dedicated to electric cars that failed to establish itself in the market, has filed for bankruptcy. These situations may not necessarily mean the disappearance of these companies, but they do pose a serious problem for planning a productive future.