Beijing-based electric vehicle maker Byton’s CEO Daniel Kirchert revealed that its M-Byte SUV model has gained more than 50,000 orders worldwide, 36Kr reported on Thursday.
Half of the orders for the M-Byte, which the company plans to mass-produce from the middle of 2020, are from China, while the remaining requests are from Europe and the United States.
Kirchert further predicted the company could meet the target of selling 100,000 units by 2021.
The model was presented at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show in September and features a 48-inch screen that spans the whole dashboard and multiple control screens. The EV SUV starts at a price of around USD 45,000, and grants more than 430 kilometers of range per charge.
The demand for the M-Byte is significant even when compared with early birds such as US-listed Nio, which once gained enough funding to mass-produce its EVs.
Nio completed its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2018, raising USD 961 million. The company later disclosed that as of October 31, 2019, aggregated deliveries of the company’s ES6 and ES8 models reached 26,215 vehicles, of which 14,867 units were delivered in 2019.
Kirchert said on Tuesday that part of the USD 500 million collected funds from its Series C round, planned for the mass production of M-Byte, have arrived at the company, according to Securities Daily.
He mentioned earlier in September that the company would start a Series D financing round soon after closing the Series C round, to fund research and development for its second and third vehicle models.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.