Former Byton CEO reportedly to join Evergrande Auto

Dai Lei, former CEO and co-founder of Chinese EV startup Byton, will take a position at Evergrande Auto, according to a report by Sina Tech on March 25.

Dai appeared at Evergrande Group headquarters on Monday and was greeted by Evergrande Auto executives, the report said, adding that a Byton executive acquiesced to the rumors.

Dai gave up his executive position at a traditional car company in 2016 to found Byton, a luxury electric car brand, with Bi Fukang, a former vice president of BMW and the “father of BMW i8”.

The company was then seen as one of the most promising electric car startups in China, along with NIO, XPeng Motors, and Li Auto.

However, at the end of June last year, Dai, then CEO, announced that the company would suspend business operations in China. The company’s M-Byte model hasn’t made it to mass production.

Earlier this year, Byton, Foxconn, and Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, announcing the goal of mass production of the M-Byte by the first quarter of 2022.

Despite not having delivered a single vehicle, Evergrande Auto has become China’s third largest publicly traded car firm behind BYD and NIO

(Hengchi 9 of Evergrande Auto)