Homemade Electric Car Debuts in Nanjing as Byton Shuts Down

2020年07月03日 16:54:35 | 来源:thenanjinger.com

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Electric cars are back in the news again in Nanjing, but for decidedly all the wrong reasons. A homemade vehicular contraption has been pulled over by police downtown just as mammoth startup Byton suspends operations for 6 months citing financial difficulties.

南京人-自制电动车在Byton关闭时在南京首次亮相

It’s been a rough first half of the the year for many a business, not least the auto sector. Byton, with its enormous state of the art factory in Nanjing, was until now hailed as the only serious competition for Tesla. Yet, the company has yet to deliver cars to its first customers.

With nothing rolling off the production line, and an industry disarrayed by The Big C, Byton has finally admitted it has been unable to pay its workers in Nanjing for the last 4 months. 

In an ironic twist, there are also rumours that the power in Byton’s factory has been turned off after the company failed to pay its electricity bill, reports InsideEVs.

The factory is located in Nanjing’s Qixia District, not far from the port of Longtan from where the firm was hoping to ship its first vehicles by the end of this year.

Byton’s colossal factory in Nanjing Development Zone

Elsewhere, an altogether different scene unfolded downtown this past Sunday, 28 June, when an odd-looking contraption was stopped by police at the intersection of Zhongshan Dong Lu and Hongwu Lu.

At approximately 18:10, the strangely-shaped vehicle was driving along the slow lane of Zhongshan Dong Lu from west to east, when police intervened. Described as a homemade concept car, the silver-grey, sharp-edged aluminum shell was equipped with doors, windows, wipers, lights and other equipment.

Police also found that the vehicle was displaying an official electric car number plate in its rear window, reported Nanjing Daily.

The driver, surnamed Xia, said that he had performed what he described as “invention and transformation” to a two-wheeled electric bicycle he had bought. Incredibly, Xia claimed that his creation can not only shelter the driver from wind and rain, but is also “safe” when driving on the road.

Police also later discovered the vehicle had numerous traffic violations such as running red lights. Xia’s electric bicycle was detained under the  “Nanjing Road Traffic Safety Regulations” act of 1 May, 2019.

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