On the road in Byton M-Byte
Exclusive drive in forthcoming Europe-bound EV
CHINESE newcomer Byton has caused a storm with its radical approach to drivers’ in-car experience. And now Auto Express has been allowed to drive a late prototype of the company’s first model, the M-Byte.
Byton is targeting a younger generation of customer for whom what really matters is not the thrill of an empty B-road, but rather connectivity and their own digital lifestyle. And the cabin reflects those requirements.
Up front there is an astonishing fascia: a 48-inch curved OLED display that stretches from one side of the cabin to the other. Then there are two further touchscreens – one on the fixed hub at the centre of the steering wheel, and a tablet between the front seats.
Our test site is a deserted Las Vegas casino car park, but it’s wide, open and littered with plenty of broken patches of tarmac.
The car in question is PP02, only the second M-Byte to come off the line in Nanjing, China. It’s a rear-wheel-drive edition with the smaller 72kWh battery pack – so this 4.9-metre long, 2.3-tonne SUV has 268bhp, enough for a 0-62mph time of 7.5 seconds, and a range of around 260 miles.
The first thing that strikes you as you pull away is the ride. There’s no air suspension here – just springs and dampers – and the primary set-up is pretty firm, keeping body control well in check. But this allows the secondary ride to be pliant, helping the car to do a very decent job of isolating us from the wrinkles in the road surface.
The M-Byte doesn’t feel slow, and while there’s not quite the same initial throttle response that you find in many EVs, this is just down to modulation. The electric-motor punch is still there; it’s just delivered in a progressive fashion. The brake pedal’s transition between energy recuperation and the discs and pads is well calibrated, too.
If we have a gripe, it’s the steering, which feels linear but too slow and heavy all round. It’s work in progress, we’re told.
We also get a glimpse of the content that can be piped through that crisp display – everything from a multi-webcam business meeting to a meditation mode that plays soothing music and images. It’s already clear that the M-Byte has the potential to redefine what you do when you’re charging – one of the inescapable facts of electric-vehicle ownership.