AUGUST 20, 2018 17 maker and the world’s largest producer of lithium ion batteries for vehicles, totaled around $800 million, Breitfeld said. T at’s not a lot by global standards; it’s less than Toyo- ta’s annual r&d budget. Making it or faking it? China has a fast-growing fi eld of EV hopefuls. Here’s a look at some of them. Singulato iS6 crossover Nio Vehicle: ES8 crossover On sale: Delivering initial run of 10,000 Founders Edition units in China Tech: 70-kWh battery, cells by CATL Range: 221 miles Price: $65,000-$79,500 Production: Outsourced to JAC But the secret sauce in China is sometimes unseen.
Government assistance rang up to the tune of $800 million, Breitfeld said, in- cluding subsidies and guaranteed loans from Nanjing to build the plant. Byton doesn’t have to repay the loan until it turns profi table, and its own investment amounts to less than 20 percent of the plant’s cost, Breitfeld esti- mated. “It’s basically taking the risk completely away from us,” Breitfeld said. WM Motor Vehicle: EX5 crossover On sale: September in China Tech: 46-kWh, 53-kWh and 57-kWh batteries, cells by Godsend Power and CATL Range: 186-286 miles Price: $26,100-$32,600 Production:
Factory in Wenzhou with 100,000 capacity Technology Breitfeld and his international team of en- gineers, designers and production special- ists seek to channel their wealth of expertise into cutting-edge technology, not just anoth- er car. Some 300 of the company’s 700 employees are in Santa Clara, Calif., working on the ad- vanced electronics Byton hopes will set its cars apart. Another 80 are in Munich, focused on design. Singulato Vehicle: iS6 crossover On sale: Fall in China, then other countries Tech: 80-kWh battery, cells by Panasonic Range: 249 miles Price: $29,000-$43,500 Production:
Outsourced to BAIC at fi rst, but 2 factories in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces to open by 2020 T e world headquarters in Nanjing exudes a Silicon Valley vibe, with exposed concrete ceilings, trendy open seating and soothing walls of leafy plants. Breitfeld wants to ex- pand the global head count to 1,200 by year end. Xpeng Vehicle: G3 crossover On sale: End of 2018 in China Tech: 44-kWh battery, cells by Sunwoda Range: 199 miles Price: $29,000-$40,600 Production:
Outsourced to Haima initially, later switching to own plant in Zhaoqing with 100,000 capacity Byton’s cars make a hard sell on technolo- gy, from the expansive display panels — as wide as the entire car — to the tablet embed- ded in the steering wheel. T at’s a top strategy for all of China’s EV startups. T ey position themselves as a new breed born from the convergence of old- school automakers and futuristic tech compa- nies. Leap Vehicle: S01 four-seat sporty coupe On sale: First half of 2019 in China Tech: 140-kWh battery, cells by Panasonic and BAK Group Range: 224 miles Price: $21,800-$29,000 Production:
Building factory in Jinhua that targets 200,000 capacity “You can’t call them startups anymore be- cause they are too big. I call them emerging auto-tech companies,” said Zhou Lei, a part- ner and auto analyst at Monitor Deloitte. “In- vestors in China have changed their focus from traditional, labor-intensive industries to those with new-technology elements that capture the eyes of China’s growing high-end consumers.” Jacob: “Show digital power” Leap S01 sporty coupe Byton Vehicle: M-Byte crossover On sale: Late 2019 in China, 2020 in the U.S. Tech: 71-kWh and 95-kWh batteries, cells by CATL Range: 249-329 miles Price: About $45,000 Production:
Building factory in Nanjing with 300,000 capacity Byton’s very name seeks to telegraph tech- nology. It is short for “bytes on wheels,” a nod to its ambition of developing an automobile that is a next-generation smart device . Global design chief Benoit Jacob, another BMW defector who worked on the i program, says Byton’s styling must exude this high- tech aura at fi rst glance. T e K-Byte sedan concept, for instance, has a slender module that houses lidar sensors along the spine of the roof. Other lidar sensors pop out under the sideview mirrors and retract when the car isn’t in autonomous mode. Nio ES8 crossover Source: Companies of Byton’s design language, which he calls New Semantics.
“We don’t want to hide our technology. We want to celebrate it.” of EV newcomers, including Singulato, WM Motor, Xpeng and Nio. Many are due this year. Pricing is expected to run the gamut, but most, like Byton, are seeking to undercut Tesla’s Model X with sticker prices less than $50,000. on the outskirts of Nanjing. About two dozen vehicle bodies occupied the sparkling prem- ises, but workers had built just three complete prototypes. T ose were heading to crash tests. “We have to show digital power,” Jacob said Product Byton’s planned crossover and sedan will use the same platform and electric powertrain, and the batteries will come in two variants.
“If you want to be successful,” Breitfeld said, “you need to have an aff ordable product.” Before starting production next year, Byton plans to build just 200 crossovers for valida- tion and other prototype testing, a mere handful compared with the way old-school players operate. Byton seeks to contain cost partly by adopt- ing a direct-to-consumer retail model similar to Tesla’s. Breitfeld says Byton can trim costs by up to 20 percent that way. T e base model M-Byte crossover gets a 71-kilowatt-hour battery with a 249-mile range; a more powerful 95-kWh battery op- tion will achieve 329 miles .
T e K-Byte sedan will use the same batteries but have a longer range because of better aerodynamics and a lighter weight, Breitfeld said. “We don’t want to build thousands of cars, because it’s way too expensive,” said Mark Duchesne, Byton’s global production chief. He spent fi ve years leading various manufactur- ing divisions at Tesla and, before that, nearly two decades setting up factories at Toyota. In the U.S., dealers would be used as agents who connect customers to Byton but don’t actually hold inventory, said Henrik Wenders, another BMW i veteran who now leads global marketing at Byton. Buyers’ con- tracts would be with Byton, not the dealer.
Byton plans to start rolling out autonomous K-Byte prototypes as early as this year, with an eye toward making Level 4 vehicles ready for commercialization around the end of 2020 or early 2021. Customers will be able to use that hands-off driving feature only in lim- ited areas that support it, Breitfeld said. “It’s one way we can keep costs down,” Duch- esne said, adding that Byton wants to get by with fewer prototypes by doing detailed tear- downs of the ones it does build. “T at allows us to really condense our time schedules.” In China, Byton plans to open up to 30 brand stores by year end. Factory Before selling any cars, Byton must make them. And here’s where things get tricky.
Byton plans to shave time by doing trial production in the prototype workshop, then hit the ground running when the assembly plant opens. Byton sees a crossover as key to a strong launch because consumers are fl ocking to the segment, not only in the U.S., but in China. As of June, a prototype trial workshop was the only building at the site of Byton’s future assembly plant in a sprawling industrial park Crossovers are the leadoff products for a host see CHINA, Page 18