Chinese electric vehicle startup Byton plans to launch a new round of fund raising in the next few months as it prepares to unveil its first production model in the third quarter of the year.
Byton was established about three years ago by former BMW and Nissan executives to take on the likes of Tesla both in the rapidly-expanding Chinese electric vehicle market and overseas.
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The company recently completed cold weather testing of a number of prototypes at temperatures as low as -30C and is currently putting the finishing touches to a new CNY11bn (US$1.6bn) factory in Nanjing that meets Industry 4.0 standards.
The plant is scheduled to start operations in 2020 with an initial capacity of 150,000 units per year, rising to 300,000 later.
The first model will be the M-Byte battery-powered SUV with passenger cars and MPVs based on the same platform to follow.
FAW Group is one of a number of companies keen to invest in Byton and has started due diligence with a view to becoming a leading investor, according to Byton CEO Daniel Kirchert.
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By GlobalDataHe added "our fundraising is going very smoothly and we hope to complete the round by the middle of the year".
Separate reports suggested Byton was looking to raise about US$500m which would value the company at more than US$2.5bn with FAW hoping to invest around US$100m.
Byton also was said to have agreed to produce electric vehicles for FAW's premium Hongqi brand.
