What's the news?
We've been kept waiting a while, and the barriers between us and the facts have been many and vague, but finally the latest electric car startup, Faraday Future, has revealed its wares to the world. Well, sort of. Actually, the new company has used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (a tech-fest that is rapidly becoming more important to car makers than most of the big traditional auto shows) to show off an outlandish concept car and stake its claim as the latest challenger to Tesla.
Actually the FFZERO1 concept car is not so much a peek at what Faraday Future intends to build, as a bit of show-car showing-off while the real plans are being finalised. It's a single-seat supercar with a fighter-jet bubble canopy, looking like a cross between a Le Mans 24hrs racer and a stealth bomber, and covering up Faraday's Variable Platform Architecture (VPA). The VPA, says Faraday, can be configured for pretty much any type of vehicle body that they want to plop on top. The batteries are arranged in transverse stacks along the length of the platform, so that wheelbases and power capacities can be tweaked to suit what's needed. Faraday claims the FFZERO1 concept has 1,000hp and can accelerate from 0-60mph (0-96km/h) in less than 3 seconds. It even has a smartphone dock built into the steering wheel, although quite what An Garda Siochana would make of that remains to be seen. Mind you, concept car specs are not exactly delivered under oath...
While we eagerly await Faraday's future, it needs to overcome some skepticism about its future. Plenty of electric car makers have promised much and delivered little, but Faraday at least seems to be going about being a Tesla rival by being almost exactly like Tesla. Its product development chief is Nick Sampson, who was formerly a senior engineer at Tesla, and like Elon Musk's company, Faraday has a headquarters in California and has just announced a huge factory in nearby Nevada. That factory came with tax-dollar sweeteners to the tune of USD$330 million, not to mention Nevada's lack of corporation tax, and is promised to generate around 4,500 jobs for the region.
The company has also hired former BMW designer Richard Kim, who was insisting at the FFZERO1's unveiling that much of the car's 'UFO' styling would be used in production models. "The FFZERO1 Concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies informing FF's forthcoming production vehicles," said Kim. "This project liberated our designers and inspired new approaches for vehicle forms, proportions and packaging that we can apply to our upcoming production models."
Much of Faraday's investment comes from Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, who made his money from online film and TV streaming service LeTV.
"What we've announced illustrates the strength of our team, vision, partnerships and speed. We're a forward-thinking company focused on the future of mobility, but we also share a passion for driving and performance," said Nick Sampson. "On our platform, electric vehicles will not only deliver on sustainability, but will be seamlessly connected and exhilarating to drive."