German subsidiary of Byton declared bankrupt

Byton is a trademark under which the Chinese company FMC (Future Mobility Corporation) planned to enter Western markets.

Then many critics remembered the car thanks to the 48-inch display in the car interior.

Byton was founded by specialists who had previously worked for BMW, Nissan and Tesla. The search for investments for the production of electric vehicles was crowned with success in China. However, the company has fallen victim to the pandemic's economic crisis, like many auto startups with no assets to pledge or sell profitably. Since mid-2020, the company has effectively ceased operations, sending the bulk of its employees on long-term unpaid leave. Earlier, in April, more than half of the employees were simply laid off.

Last year, the company’s CEO Daniel Kirchert, who previously worked with BMW, resigned from his post. The company did not manage to find a substitute director for him. As a result, the German office of the company had been in fact left without a manager for more than six months. In April 2021, the court recognized Kirchert as a debtor and ruled on the bankruptcy of the company. Michael Bauer was appointed as interim manager. Kirchert himself, according to sources in Germany, demanded to file for bankruptcy a year before, but resigned without finding support from the leadership in China.

It is interesting that the German office of Byton was declared bankrupt three months after the media reported on the contract signed by the head office in China (Nanjing Development Zone) and the Taiwanese company Foxconn (iPhone supplier). In January 2021, both companies announced that they planned to start mass production of the Byton M-Byte by early 2022. Prior to that, Foxconn supplied components for various manufacturers (including Tesla).