After burning through 8.4 billion in 3 years, it was named by CCTV, and another domestic brand officially announced the suspension of production and work!

Unlike Xpeng, NIO, and Li Auto, which were released in 2014, Byton, which was only released in 2017, seems to have become a "new" force in car manufacturing.

However, the late pace has not affected Byton's enthusiasm. From the beginning of its release, Byton has established the concept of "rooted in China and deployed around the world". The huge pattern is self-evident.

But ideals are full, and reality is skinny. From its official launch in September 2017 to now, Byton’s answers in less than three years have been unsatisfactory.

And behind this answer sheet, there are also numerous negative comments about this brand.

On the evening of June 29, Byton CEO Dai Lei organized an impromptu all-staff meeting, attended by more than 800 current and former Byton employees.

At the meeting, Dai Lei announced that the company has decided to suspend business operations and production in China (except Hong Kong) starting from July 1, 2020.

Most employees in China will be on standby, and only a small number of employees will stay on duty to maintain the company's most basic functions.

Among them, there is a high probability that less than 100 employees will remain on duty (in China), with production and R&D accounting for 50%.

In North America and Byton Germany, they have initiated bankruptcy applications in accordance with local laws, leaving 10 people behind.

For laid-off employees, the shutdown period is expected to be 6 months. The company will pay the back wages for March 2020 before July 10, 2020.

For employees who choose to resign voluntarily, their wages will be settled in full before July 10, 2020.

As a car manufacturing industry that burns money like water, the establishment of new power brands is always inseparable from the presence of various capitals, and the willingness of these capitals to invest naturally stems from the confidence that this brand brings to the outside world.

The founding team of Byton Motors is not led by capitalists like Weilai and Xiaopeng.

Instead, Breitfeld, a world-renowned electric vehicle expert who has worked at BMW for 20 years, led the BMW electric sports car i8 project and is known as the "Father of i8" in the industry.

He also served as the general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti, the general manager of Dongfeng Infiniti Automobile Co., Ltd., and the senior vice president of marketing at BMW Brilliance.

Dai Lei, the current CEO of Byton, has profound experience in marketing, sales, brand management, business development, and corporate operations.

Technical experts + marketing experts, plus the core management team include many top experts from China, Europe and the United States who have held senior positions in BMW, Tesla, Google, and Apple.

The combination of this combination also allowed Byton to gain a lot of attention at the beginning of its launch, and the result of the popularity is the market's confidence in it.

In December 2016, Byton, which was founded just over half a year ago, received joint investment from Harmony Automobile, Lihe Automobile, and Jinheng Investment. In August of the following year, Byton Automobile obtained Suning, Fengsheng Holdings, and Nanjing State-owned Assets.

Commissioned a total of US$240 million in Series A investment.

On June 11, 2018, Byton Motors announced the completion of Series B financing, with a total financing amount of US$500 million. The investors were FAW Group, TusHoldings, CATL, and Jiangsu One Belt and One Road Investment Fund, of which FAW Group invested US$265 million.

According to public information, Byton has conducted four rounds of financing since its establishment, with a total amount of approximately 8.4 billion yuan.

And all this came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of work and production shutdowns.

It is reported that Byton Motors' Shanghai office canceled its lease in April and its Beijing office on June 17. Now Byton has been in arrears with employee wages for four months.

Moreover, FAW Xiali is still "owed" a debt of 310 million yuan that has not yet been repaid. The Nanjing factory has also recently shut down due to arrears, water and power outages.

In addition, in the second financial program on June 28, Byton was also pointedly pointed out that "it can't build a mass-produced car after burning 8.4 billion yuan."

Different from traditional "PPT brands", Byton has indeed taken action on this path.

On September 8, 2017, Byton Smart Electric Vehicle Industrial Park officially started construction in Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone, Jiangsu Province, with a planned area of ??1,200 acres, a total investment of 11.07 billion yuan, and a planned total production capacity of 300,000 units.

In September 2018, FAW Xiali transferred 100% of the equity of its wholly-owned subsidiary FAW Huali to Byton Motors’ parent company, Nanjing Zhixing Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd., at a symbolic price of 1 yuan. Byton Motors also

Obtained automobile production access qualification.

On January 7, 2018, BYTON officially released its first concept car BYTON Concept in Las Vegas. In April, BYTON Concept made its first public appearance in China.

In August of that year, Byton opened the payment channel for car purchase intentions for the "BYTON Pioneer Limited Edition" model for a limited time, and officially accepted reservations.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2019, Byton officially unveiled its first mass-produced model, the M-Byte, and announced its European starting price at 45,000 euros in November.

But after that, the news about Byton M-Byte began to gradually disappear, followed by news about the suspension of work.