BYTON unveils new all-electric and autonomous sedan concept

Just a day after announcing that they secured $500 million in funding to bring their electric vehicles to market, BYTON is now unveiling an all-electric and autonomous sedan concept.

The new electric sedan comes after they unveiled their first vehicle, an all-electric SUV, at CES earlier this year.

It’s called the BYTON K-Byte Concept as part of the startup’s new product-naming strategy, wherein “the company will use the term “Byte” to label its planned series of three products that are built on a shared platform.”

Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and co-founder of BYTON, explained:

By adopting this naming strategy, BYTON celebrates our brand DNA as a next-generation smart device. Following from our first model, the BYTON M-Byte Concept, the K-Byte Concept represents a breakthrough in the design of smart connected vehicles. It changes the design language of traditional cars, delivering a perfect blend of elegance, style, luxury, and sportiness, and introducing new design aesthetics in the age of shared mobility and autonomous driving.

The vehicle’s design is supposed “to define the new aesthetics of auto design in the age of autonomous driving”.

Here are a few images that they released today after the launch of the K-Byte at an event in Shanghai:

It’s still very much a concept vehicle as an actual production sedan from BYTON is not expected for another 3 years.

BYTON president and co-founder Dr. Daniel Kirchert added:

BYTON’s mission is to be a leader in next-generation smart devices. The K-Byte Concept shows that we can deliver our platform in different shapes and with different features to suit different lifestyles. Furthermore, building the car on the same platform as the M-Byte Concept enables us to streamline and scale the production cycle. We are fully confident that we will meet our commitment to deliver the sedan to market in 2021.

The startup didn’t reveal any information about the vehicle’s powertrain and it instead focused on design aspects, especially when it relates to autonomous sensors.

They wrote in a press release:

• Sensor integration for autonomous driving is front and center within the K-Byte Concept’s design aesthetic. With an elegant and slender module on the rooftop, the bow-shaped BYTON LiBow system integrates front and rear lidar sensors to allow for a full-view panoramic scan of the vehicle’s surroundings. BYTON’s retractable LiGuards side lidar system is located below the side-view cameras. The system will deploy in autonomous driving mode to ensure driving safety and retract automatically during parking maneuvers; moreover, these lidars can all be illuminated for a range of specific purposes, such as signaling pedestrians.
• Bodywork and design. BYTON’s designers, without any superfluous decoration, have carefully polished each line, although the innovative C-pillar design takes its inspiration from the buttresses seen in architecture, presenting a graceful curve while delivering aerodynamic performance. The windows and sunroof are expanded to emphasize safety while creating a generous greenhouse enabling drivers and passengers to fully enjoy the outside world. The BYTON K-Byte Concept also has an impressive front face, upgraded BYTON Smart Surfaces deployed on both fascia and tail for a stunning echo effect, and a layout of light strips creating a deep three-dimensional visual while giving an enhanced sense of technology being utilized. Immediately above the Smart Surfaces is an integrated taillight that runs through to the tail and drawing comparisons to the horizon.

BYTON has partnered with Aurora, a self-driving startup by former autonomous program leaders from Tesla, Google and Uber, to help them make their EVs drive themselves.