“Tesla Hunter”
Massage chair, 1050 hp and from zero to 100 km/h in 2.39 seconds: The Faraday Future 91 Futurist
The Faraday Future FF 91 is intended to compete with car manufacturers such as Tesla
© Faraday&Future Inc.
“Tesla hunter” Farady Future wants to launch his first electric car. The 91 Futurist should stand out “from all other vehicles”. A declaration of war with 1050 hp, acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than three seconds and massage chairs in a reclining position.
When the company started, Farady Future presented itself as a Tesla challenger. Then came difficult times, but the spring should be the day: the Californian start-up has announced that it intends to start production of its first series vehicle as early as next month. The manufacturer promises a “future-oriented design” that will set it apart “from all other vehicles on the road”.
The special features of the Faraday Future 91 Futurist (short: FF 91) include two separate rear seats, which can be placed in a reclining position – in accordance with the “neutral posture” standards developed by NASA, which the human body assumes in weightlessness. The ventilated armchair-like seats also offer a massage function for more comfort in the car. For digital use, the Californians rely on numerous displays in the FF 91: behind the steering wheel, in the center console, in front of the front passenger, as an alternative to the rear-view mirror, behind the front seats in the roof and in the doors.
There is talk of a “next generation of automotive interiors”. Innovations in the field of mobility are to be redefined in order to design a “premium vehicle of tomorrow”. The car is “seamlessly networked” and, according to the manufacturer, has “a unique intelligent internet system”. In addition, a so-called FFID profile can be created, whereby the vehicle is brought into the settings made by the driver before the start of the journey. Among other things, this should affect the correct seat and steering wheel position.
Specifications are similar to Tesla Model X
The luxury SUV should also convince technically on a broad level. It has three motors with a total output of 1050 hp, which should accelerate the FF 91 from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.39 seconds. A short charging time and a long range are decisive for the success of an e-car. The sporty luxury model from Faraday Future is equipped with lithium-ion battery cells, which are said to have the highest energy density in the world – according to the manufacturer almost twice as high as that of a standard car battery. The electric car should have a range of a good 600 kilometers.
After its founding in 2014, Faraday Future presented itself as a big challenger to Tesla. And so the luxury SUV FF 91 is likely to fall into the upper class, just like the Tesla Model X, which went into production at the beginning of 2016. There are also quite a few similarities when looking at the technical data of both vehicles. According to the manufacturer, the Tesla model has 1020 hp in the sports version (plaid), needs 2.6 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h and can travel up to 543 kilometers with one battery charge according to WLTP. In the meantime, however, Faraday Future wants to compete more with Ferrari, Maybach, Rolls Royce and Bentley, according to the company. The premium car manufacturers are not as far along as Tesla when it comes to electrification, but they also want to switch to electromobility in the future. Ferrari, for example, wants to launch its first luxury sports car without a combustion engine and instead with a fully electric drive in 2025.
Faraday Future delayed production start due to times of crisis
Faraday Future has not set itself easy goals with the production of a first vehicle. The history of the company shows that. The company, which was mainly built with Chinese money, presented a concept vehicle called FFZERO1 at CES in Las Vegas in 2016. The single-seater supercar had the look of a racing car; its design language should flow into future production vehicles. The principles of the driver’s seat based on the NASA “weightlessness” design were also to be carried over to subsequent models.
However, financial difficulties of the main Chinese investor quickly brought Faraday Future into a crisis. There were board fights, corporate governance issues, and eventually a drop in cash. In autumn 2019, the company reacted with a new start and brought the former BMW manager, Carsten Breitfeld, to the top of the company.
In January 2021, Faraday Future merged with an already publicly traded company, which should bring in proceeds of one billion dollars and enable the production and delivery of the FF 91. According to the announcement at the time, the car should be on the market by mid-2022. Since the IPO, however, the company’s shares have fallen by 92 percent. As a result, the planned start of deliveries was postponed to the end of 2022.
However, in recent months, Faraday Future has been trying to save money and delaying vehicle development. At the end of the third quarter of 2022, the company had just under $32 million in cash, up from just $22.5 million at the end of November. In November, CEO Breitfeld was forced to resign after a review of the company’s performance since its IPO. His successor was the previous head of China, Xuefeng Chen. In the same month, the young electric car manufacturer finally expressed “considerable doubts” about continuing its activities, as quoted by the international news agency Reuters. It is uncertain when the first deliveries of the FF 91 can be completed, it said. In addition to the generally rising costs, Faraday Future was also affected by the disruptions in the supply chain.
Faraday Future 91 Futurist is scheduled to roll off the assembly line in April
A few days ago, the company then announced that it had agreed financing commitments for secured convertible notes in the amount of US$ 135 million, subject to certain conditions. This means that production of the FF 91 should be able to start at the end of March. The vehicle should finally roll off the assembly line in early April – assuming the company receives the money from its investors as expected. “We will ship the FF 91 Futurist with high quality and high product performance as soon as possible once we receive the funds provided for in these financings,” CEO Xuefeng said. After the optimistic announcement, the company’s shares rose by around eight percent.
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So there is hope again for the start of production of the FF 91. What the luxury SUV will cost is not yet known.
Sources: Farady Future, Reuters (1), Reuters (2), with dpa material