Beating Tesla means making your car smarter than an iPhone, says Future Mobility boss

Building an electric car that’s fast is not the way to beat Tesla, according to the head of Future Mobility Corp. The key to competing with the undisputed market leader is to pack in enough technology that the car becomes a smartphone on wheels.

The Chinese electric vehicle start-up is aiming to take on Tesla on a global scale by making cars “smarter than an iPhone” and featuring the kind of entertainment options you might find in a living room.

“Our mission is not to make cars faster – I believe that is not very useful – but to allow us to enjoy the time we spend in cars, making cars into another living room of your home. In order to achieve that, the car has to become a smart device,” Daniel Kirchert, co-founder and president of Future Mobility, told the South China Morning Post in an interview.

On Thursday, the company, which counts former executives from BMW and Nissan Motor as its founding shareholders and boasts engineers who worked for Google and Tesla, unveiled its new brand, Byton – referring to bytes on wheels – reflecting its strategy to compete in the increasingly crowded electric vehicle (EV) market by “making cars the next generation of smart device”.

Future Mobility’s first concept car will not debut until January 2018 in all its glory, but its interior design was unveiled on Thursday. One of its most obvious hi-tech features is a huge screen – 1.25 metres by 25 centimetres – on the front seat, a new user interface and smart functions such as voice control and gesture control.

Backed by Hong Kong-listed China Harmony New Energy Auto, Future Mobility is eyeing China’s huge auto market. By leveraging good manufacturing facilities and a healthy supply chain, it aims to tap Chinese consumers’ appetite for new technologies and establish itself as a smart, premium car maker that can challenge Tesla on a the international stage.