Byton Lands $500 Million in Funding

China’s Future Mobility Corp. has raised $500 million in its latest funding round to further develop and launch its Byton-badged line of electric vehicles.

The Series B funding was led by Chinese carmaker FAW, Ningde-based battery producer CATL and Tsinghua University’s Tus-Holdings investment arm. Byton already had raised more than $250 million from earlier investors, including internet giant Tencent Holdings.

Byton introduced a prototype electric crossover vehicle in January at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas. The company aims to launch a production version of the midsize model by the end of next year in China and in 2020 in Europe and the U.S. A sedan and MPV built on the same platform also are planned.

The electric crossover is expected to include a host of connected and automated vehicle technologies. Byton is partnering with Aurora Innovation Inc., a U.S. developer of self-driving systems, on the latter.

The concept model also featured several large display screens and a facial recognition system that is used to unlock the doors and monitor biometric data.

Byton officially opened its global headquarters in Nanjing this month and is building a manufacturing plant on the same site. The carmaker also has a Silicon Valley tech center and a design center in Germany.