Chinese electric vehicle brand Byton has completed Cold Environment Tests (CET) of its M-Byte prototypes in Inner Mongolia.
Since mid-2018 Byton has tested around 100 prototypes under realistic driving conditions on test tracks and in road traffic in the USA and China. During cold-weather testing, engineers drove thousands of miles on open roads and specially prepared test tracks at temperatures of down to -30°C (-22°F). This phase focused on batteries, battery management and drive electronics to ensure reliable operation and achieve an appropriate range. Components such as the chassis, running gear and heating system also had to stand up to continuous operation.
Meanwhile, at Byton’s headquarters in Nanjing, China, work is proceeding at full speed to complete the intelligent production facilities, which are built around cutting-edge Industry 4.0 standards.
Construction on the buildings is complete, and each hall is now being equipped with state-of-the-art machines from global partners such as Aida Engineering of Japan and German firms Kuka and Dürr. Work on equipping the press and paint shops is almost complete.
Pre-series production is scheduled to start in summer 2019. The first production cars will be delivered at the end of 2019 in China, in the second half of 2020 in the USA and at the end of 2020 in Europe.
