Byton, which has just started pre-production of its M-Byte at its plant in Nanjing, China, and whose vehicles will be contract built at a former GM Korea plant to take advantage of free trade agreements, is working on European distribution arrangements.
CCO Andreas Schaaf and a European team are currently negotiating with potential partner companies. During the last weeks various MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) were signed with Hedin Automotive in Sweden, the French BYmyCAR Group, the Dutch Louwman Group, Salvador Caetano from Portugal and Modern Driving from Switzerland.
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Byton plans to deliver the first M-Bytes to Chinese customers in mid-2020. Advance orders from Europe and North America are expected to be received by the end of 2020. Market entry in these regions is planned for mid 2021.
Schaaf said: “We rely on a hybrid sales and service model with a focus on direct marketing. Online and offline channels are complementary and equally important. The customer decides and chooses his customer journey. We control the digital channels such as apps and web stores ourselves.
“Offline, we also rely on strong partners and innovative entrepreneurs who are firmly anchored and experienced in their respective markets. Depending on the market, there will be a varying number of Byton Places, which will allow the brand and our products to be experienced in urban locations. These partners will use their own infrastructure and staff.
“Byton is always the only direct contracting party for the customer. This has several advantages for both sides: we use only one data pool and therefore always one customer approach and there is also no price competition.”
He said the first talks started a few months ago and the first letters of intent were signed in the last few days.
First markets are Scandinavia and Norway.
“We already have over 14,000 vehicle reservations from Norway alone via our app and website. Around 44% of all vehicles already drive electrically [t]here.
“But markets such as Germany, the location of our design centre, Benelux, France, Switzerland and Great Britain are also important. In any case, there will be a staggered roll-out [t]here.”
