At the beginning of January, Daniel Kirchert (47), head of the electrical start-up Byton, turned it up again at the electronics fair CES in Las Vegas. The former BMW manager presented the M-Byte electric SUV in front of a mega-screen, the cockpit with its 48-inch screen also impressed the competitors. Finally there is an alternative to Tesla, proclaimed Kirchert and reported on new international investors he was able to “secure” for Byton. The production of the M-Byte will start soon; for him personally, “a dream has come true”.
It would have been about time: Kirchert started with an international team in 2018: Financed primarily by Chinese donors, they wanted to develop modern electric cars in Silicon Valley, Munich and China.
But now Kirchert has left the company in a hurry; he didn’t even say goodbye to his team. After all, he is in a certain tradition: Co-founder Carsten Breitfeld (57), once head of the BMW i8 electric model, evaporated last year.