BYTON’s co-founder, Chairman and former CEO Carsten Breitfeld is leaving the group. In a statement, the company says he is ‘to start a new adventure within the start-up industry’. The announcement follows reports that he is to join the Chinese start-up Iconiq Motors.
BYTON CEO, Dr. Daniel Kirchert says: “Carsten helped build a strong BYTON brand and bring in the right people to take our start-up to the next level. Now we are focusing on our main goal to achieve the on-time-start-of-production of the first BYTON series production model in 2019 with our strong team and partners.”
Breitfeld joined BYTON from BMW where he spent twenty years of his career. He was BMW Group President for ten years.
The company, which has financial backing from Chinese carmaker FAW Group and battery producer CATL, says it will announce a new CTO soon.
Its global headquarters and R&D center are located in Nanjing, China, while its North American headquarters, devoted to intelligent car experience, autonomous driving, whole vehicle integration and other technologies, is based in the Silicon Valley. It has more than 1,600 employees worldwide.
