Byton previews 2021 M-Byte with steering wheel-mounted screen

Two additional screens -- including a 48" one -- are in the cabin.

Chinese electric car start-up Byton surprised us when it revealed a concept with a steering wheel-mounted screen at CES 2018, and it confounded us again by showing a more realistic variant of the SUV at CES 2019. Photos of its first production-bound model, the M-Byte, confirm the odd screen placement will somewhat surprisingly make the leap from concept to production.

Published on Byton's official Twitter account, the photos confirm its first car, the M-Byte, will have three screens. The seven-inch screen embedded in the steering wheel, above the airbag, gives the driver access to media, phone, vehicle, and comfort settings plus the various apps, the calendar, and the navigation software. An eight-inch screen located between the front seats puts many of the aforementioned functions within the front passenger's reach. Photos notably show it's used to manage the climate control settings.

Finally, the entire dashboard is dominated by a 48-inch screen that shows the information you'd expect to find on the instrument cluster, navigation directions, media settings, and the driver's agenda, among other information. It looks like a giant iPad propped up on the dashboard.

This drastic departure from what we consider normal looks anything but driver-friendly to use, and we found the layout a little bit distracting when we sat in a prototype at CES 2019. We'll wait until we get a chance to check out the production model to judge its merits. Byton has often stressed the M-Byte was designed with level three and level four autonomy in mind; the triple-screen setup might make more sense when the car drives itself.

The company began testing its the M-Byte in 2018. Preliminary specifications outline an electric powertrain made up of a single motor that draws power from a 71-kWh lithium-ion battery pack to zap the rear wheels with 250 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Dual-motor all-wheel drive will arrive later in the production run; that model will use a 95-kWh battery, and its two motors will generate 470 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque. Range checks in 250 and 323 miles, respectively, though keep in mind its EPA-certified and real-world figures will be much lower.

Byton expects to begin selling its first car in Europe and in Asia in 2020. It plans to break into the American market shortly after.