Faraday Future

Planned location

Faraday Future announced in November 2015 that it would invest up to $1 billion into its first manufacturing facility. Possible U.S facility locations are being considered in California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Nevada.

In December 2015, Faraday Future settled on a location in North Las Vegas for its manufacturing site, built by AECOM for $500 million. Construction began in April 2016 with additional required infrastructure which Nevada has formally agreed to build remains on hold pending a verification of Faraday Future that it is financially sound and fully able to raise enough money to finance the entire project. The facility is helped by a $215 million tax incentive, and a 4-mile (6 km) railway spur in 2018 to the 300 million sq ft (28 million m²) future factory where 4,500 full-time employees could work.

On May 24, 2016, the City of Vallejo, California announced there will be a May 31, 2016 Special City Council vote on an exclusive negotiating agreement. This represents the first formal step to bringing Faraday Future to Mare Island. Following Karma Automotive's new plant in Moreno Valley, the project would be the second new automobile manufacturing facility to be built from the ground up in California in the last few years. It would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment to the local economy. On May 31, 2016, the City Council unanimously agreed on entering the 6-month agreement.

Planned products

Faraday Future expects to launch its first fully electric vehicle in 2017, with the possibility of producing a larger range of vehicles over time. The company has implied plans to explore other aspects of the automotive and technology industries, such as experiential ownership and usage models, in-vehicle content, and autonomous driving.

In July 2015, Motor Trend ran an article that provided a few specifications for Faraday Future’s proposed electric vehicle: it will have 15 percent higher specific energy than a Tesla Model S, it utilizes a multi cell solution where both individual cells and groups of cells can be replaced, and it will have a modular design for improved mass-production methods.

At the November 2015 LA Auto Show, Head of Design Richard Kim discussed his interest in creating a vehicle that featured internet access, in-car entertainment, aromatherapy technology, and ergonomic interior design.

On January 4, 2016, at the US Consumer Electronics Show, they revealed their 1,000 hp (750 kW), 200 mph (320 km/h), single seat race-car concept, the FF ZERO1. It has a style similar to the 1960s Batmobile. They showed a video demonstrating how their basic design would allow for many body styles and battery configurations. No specific details were given for these potential car designs other than the race-car concept. Following the reveal, their social media pages were hit with mostly negative comments. Many stated that they were expecting details on an affordable production car that would compete with the Tesla Model 3 or Nissan Leaf. They expressed disappointment that the only design shown was of a high end concept race-car that would never actually be produced, instead of a production car for the everyday driver.

Faraday Future plans to begin testing self-driving vehicles on California roads after winning approval from California on June 17, 2016.

Faraday Future unveiled their new FF 91 130 kWh vehicle design at the January 2017 US Consumer Electronics Show, and received a total of 64,124 reservations within the first 36 hours. It is claimed to accelerate 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) in less than 2.5 seconds, costing less than $300,000. Faraday Future plans several cars based on the flexible Variable Platform Architecture (VPA).

Commercial and marketing plans

The company said that some of Faraday Future’s revenue stream is expected to come from alternative, ancillary sources, the anticipated revenue structure being closer to that of the smartphone than to that of standard automobile sales.

In November 2015, Faraday Future announced that they would attend CES International (the Consumer Electronics Show) in January 2016. In January 2017 the company presented its latest technology at the CES in Las Vegas, claiming that their car makes all other cars redundant.

Funding controversy

Faraday has been the subject of speculation voiced by ex-employees and government officials who have expressed doubts about the company's finances. Specifically, Faraday has failed to fund even a few relatively small escrow accounts which has led to some analysts doubting the company's financial solidity and overall investment strategy.

“It’s a matter of time before problems emerge,” said Wang Zheng, the Shanghai-based chief investment officer at Jingxi Investment Management, which oversees a portfolio of about $300 million. It is avoiding LeEco shares, in part because of concerns over its financing strategy. “The company is capital strapped,” said Dai Ming, a money manager at Hengsheng Asset Management in Shanghai. FF suspended work on the Nevada site in November 2016 until the first $300 million of a recent $600 million funding comes through. The delay caused criticism by Nevada officials, which Yueting refuted.

Among FF's financial challenges is providing surety for a $140 million loan when LeEco bought a $250 million piece of land in California from Yahoo.

Motorsport

Faraday Future will join the FIA Formula E Championship for electric-powered cars through a collaboration with the existing Dragon Racing team, also American, for the series' third season, beginning in October 2016. Specifications for the car were released in November 2016.

Leadership and staff

Faraday Future is currently led by an executive team with these members:

In addition to the named executives, Faraday Future has reported that it has built a team from former Tesla (130 people), GM, Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Audi, Apple (60 people), SpaceX, and Hulu employees. It is still unclear who the CEO of Faraday Future is.

Naming

Faraday Future's vehicles are named with an "FF" indicating Faraday Future followed by a two digit number. The first digit (10's place) indicates the market segment of the vehicle. A "9" would be top-of-the-range product for Faraday, with each number lower indicating a successively lower cost segment, except for "0", indicating a special car. The second digit (1's place) indicates successive iterations in that segment.

FF ZERO 1

The FFZERO1 concept vehicle was unveiled in 2016. The "Zero" spelling indicates the concept vehicle status, the "1" indicates the first such model.

FF 01

The FF01 is a planned low-volume halo vehicle. The "0" indicates a halo car, and the "1" indicates the first such model.

FF 91

The FF91 production model sedan was unveiled in 2017. The "9" indicates a top-of-the-line model, analogous to the Genesis G90 or Volvo S90. The "1" indicates the first model in this market segment.

701-EV

The Faraday Future Dragon Racing Penske 701-EV for the 2016-2017 Formula E season, is an all-electric open-wheel open-cockpit battery-electic racecar for the Faraday Future Dragon Racing Team, a collaboration between Faraday Future and Dragon Racing, a team founded by Jay Penske (son of autosports elder statesman Roger Penske).