Image source @Faraday Future official website
Wen 丨 Wired Travel, Author 丨 Zhou Qi, Editor 丨 Li Xin
Financing, factory building, mass production of models, opening experience stores... This is the regular car sales process of the new car-making forces.
Jia Yueting, who has always wanted to race against time, did not take the usual road, and the vehicle had not yet achieved mass production, and took the lead in opening an experience store.
On May 25 (May 24, US time), Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF) announced that the first FF Futurist Experience Center was located in Manhattan, New York, USA.
It is also faraday Future's first self-operated experience center in the world. The completion of the center means that the public can see and experience the smart electric vehicle FF91 in New York for the first time.
Faraday Future FF91 New York Experience Center Store, Image Source Daily Economic News
FF China's relevant staff said that the model will be completed within one year after the company's successful IPO, "The specific listing time of FF91 has not yet been determined." Faraday Future said that the FF Futurist Experience Center will be open to the public until after the company goes public. According to the plan to start delivering FF91 within 12 months after the merger with PSAC, FF91 is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2022.
Not only that, two days later, the US SEC website once again disclosed that PSAC has submitted a new version of the 8-K document to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), "indicating that the merger and listing of PSAC and FF has completed the audit process, which is an important step before listing." An internal employee of a leading brokerage institution revealed to Wired Travel.
Unlike the past FF only has bad news, since entering 2021, FF has frequently released good news.
In January 2021, Jia Yueting reappeared in the public eye and announced that Faraday Future had reached a final agreement with special purpose acquisition company PSAC ( A special purpose acquisition company SPAC ) on a business merger, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. After the completion of the transaction, Faraday Future will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FFIE".
In addition, according to Sina Finance, this year FF also got financing from the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and received OEM support from Geely and Foxconn.
However, the relevant media personnel of the Zhuhai Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission told the surging news that there are no matters that can be disclosed at present regarding the participation in FF.
Although in the automotive field, compared with Xiaomi and Didi, which reacted "slowly", Jia Yueting planned a "Kangzhuang Avenue" for LeTV's automotive ecological development as early as 2014. However, with LeTV mired in the quagmire and Jia Yueting defeated the United States, Faraday's future car-making road has been "in the mud".
Today, Jia Yueting has been pinning the vitality of the overturn on the car. However, even if the current FF91 is mass-produced, the advanced technology of the past is already obsolete, not to mention the competition between a number of Internet car manufacturers and traditional car companies. In the future, even if the FF91 is mass-produced, will it still be competitive?
<h2>Jia Yueting made a car: first open a shop, and then mass production</h2>
The car has not yet been mass-produced, Jia Yueting first opened the offline experience store of FF91.
Although the first experience center was opened in New York this time, according to the daily economic news, the FF91's test drive activities and other plans are still uncertain.
A person close to FF China also said that Faraday Future is limited by funds, and Faraday Future has not yet laid out a large-scale experience center in New York. After the official opening of the Manhattan Experience Center in New York, Faraday will set up a temporary showroom in the New York business district in the form of a pop-up store.
As for the reasons for opening an experience center in New York, FF Global CEO Bi Fukang explained: "FF91 is a product that defines high-performance ultra-luxury electric vehicles, and he sets a new benchmark for the driver and passenger experience" "The New York area is not only an important market for electric vehicles, but also an important market for luxury cars. ”
In his view, "the FF Futurist Experience Center is an excellent way for the public to interact with FF's products."
FF91 is being manufactured, image source Faraday Future
But this moment, compared to other car-builders, came a little late.
Since the beginning of this year, Baidu, Xiaomi, Didi and other Internet giants have successively "participated" in this industry, announcing that they have joined as vehicle manufacturers, and Ali, Apple, and Huawei have cooperated with traditional car companies as suppliers.
In the eyes of many people in the automotive industry, today's smart electric vehicles are the new wealth code, and Jia Yueting talked about the dream of building cars for seven years, and now he is waiting for the wind. The fate of FF91", it seems that the fate of "difficult childbirth" has been foreshadowed since the establishment of FF.
In 2014, Jia Yueting founded Faraday Future when LeTV was in the sky, and then opened a twist and turn and "difficult to produce" car road. After experiencing the financial crisis of China's LeTV, coupled with the huge cost of car manufacturing, on January 4, 2017, FF officially released the first electric vehicle FF91 in Las Vegas, USA, when it was announced that it would start delivering cars in 2018. At the same time, the inflection point of Jia Yueting's dream of building a car also appeared in this year.
At the end of 2017, the surging news reported that only one employee of FF USA had clocked in to work, and there was no production equipment in the factory.
Then, the delivery schedule for the FF91 began to change again and again. In 2019, it was changed to "only the last step" from mass production. In September 2020, Bi Fukang, the "father of BMW i8", succeeded Jia Yueting as FF Global CEO, promising to "guarantee that FF91 can be mass-produced and delivered on time in September this year with his own personality", and finally he was also beaten in the face.
What is the "sacred" FF91 of "dystocia"? Similar to Tesla's route, Faraday future set the FF91 as the beginning of a high-end product. As faraday's flagship product of the future, from the official data released, FF91 is known as a "suffocating car". From the beginning of the design, it has been positioned at the level of luxury and high performance, claiming to provide users with the most perfect experience.
FF91 interior, source Faraday Future official website
In terms of vehicle configuration, FF adopts a three-motor design, and the 130 kWh battery pack is the powerful "heart" of FF91, and the peak power of the motor can reach 783 kW and 1050 horsepower, which can be called the world's most powerful electric vehicle power system.
The system allowed the FF91 to run about 378 miles (about 608 kilometers) in EPA tests, making it an industry leader. That means a one-time charge, from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley. The FF91's 0-100km acceleration time is less than 2.4 seconds, which is known as "surpassing the acceleration of gravity".
And according to the official information of FF company, FF's three electric (battery, motor, electronic control) technology are independently developed, and the official website of FF company also hangs the news that "Faraday Future trapezoidal inverter" has obtained a US patent.
Bi Fukang is even more proud, frankly saying that FF has the most advanced three-electric system in the market: the energy density of the motor is the highest in the entire industry, the battery technology is also the most advanced, the cells are all directly into the coolant, and each battery cell can get very good cooling. This allows for extremely high power inputs and outputs, i.e. permanently extremely high charging power, which can be charged quickly.
Not only that, in the first half of this year, FF91 has newly upgraded more passenger-centric functions. It is reported that the rear passengers of the FF91 can control the FF91's 27-inch rear passenger display (RSD) through simple voice commands, including screen lifting and lowering, and realizing in-car video conferencing during driving.
In addition to the hardware, the software setting of FF91 is also very technological, with a total of 36 sensing devices, imitating the multi-layered emergency system of air travel to ensure passenger safety. In addition, it also supports unmanned valet parking, multi-modem support for high-speed Internet access on the way, etc.
The latest news about the mass production time of FF91 is that in March 2021, FF said that FF is advancing to the final stage of product test planning, and has completed the second round of winter testing and experiments to prepare for the timely release of FF91. In addition, its first production model, the FF91, will also go on sale in the first half of 2022.
<h2>Who is helping Jia Yueting build a car? </h2>
After a series of ups and downs, FF has now survived and is ready to go public.
However, if the domestic car-making forces are ranked according to the entry time, Jia Yueting is the earliest batch, but he has become the latest "dream keeper" to take the road of car-making.
Until 2021, Jia Yueting, who was "suffocated by his dreams", "returned" again and made a big move in the market. There is triple good news around FF: it will submit SPAC (special purpose merger and acquisition) listing materials, FF has reached a strategic cooperation with Geely, and will get 2 billion yuan of financing.
On January 27, according to Sina Technology, two major groups, led by the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Gree and Huafa invested 2 billion yuan in Faraday Future, founded by Jia Yueting. Immediately after Geely issued an announcement that it had signed a cooperation agreement with FF, and Foxconn jointly gave FF OEM, and planned to invest 30 million to 40 million US dollars in FF.
A day later, FF announced that it would complete the merger with SPAC, a special acquisition company in the United States, and was preparing to seek a backdoor listing in the second quarter.
Geely Holding Group signed a framework cooperation agreement with Faraday Future, the source of geely holding group WeChat public account
One of the points that has attracted much attention from the outside world is that since 2017, Jia Yueting's personal name has nearly 30 pieces of execution information, arrears of more than 7 billion yuan, coupled with the long-term failure to return to China, so that the outside world's impression of Jia Yueting is extremely negative.
Therefore, the focus of external attention is also on who is the actual controller of FF, why FF can obtain new financing, and how FF, which has not launched a product for 4 years, can gain the trust of investors.
And such a lot of doubts, or from the investors and partners of FF's listing, found some answers.
Compared with before, the financing helpers in 2021 have expanded a lot compared with the previous team - Zhuhai State-owned Assets, Huafa, Geely and Gree. The most eye-catching is Geely, and the auspicious life in 2020 is not "auspicious". Although Geely has developed by leaps and bounds after the acquisition of Volvo, it has always been on the margins of the new energy vehicle market.
According to geely automobile's Hong Kong stock announcement, geely automobile sales in 2020 were 1.3202 million units, down 3% year-on-year; new energy vehicles and electrification products accounted for only 5% of the total sales of 1.32 million. At the same time, Geely Automobile's 2020 semi-annual report data shows that Geely's net profit in the first half of the year fell by nearly half year-on-year.
Therefore, the double decline in sales and performance has forced Geely to transform. Geely made it clear in its announcement on FF cooperation in January this year that it participated in a small number of investments in FF listings as a financial investor, while providing talent and technology to support them in the role of foundry. This also means that Geely doesn't just take on the role of foundries.
As for the reasons why Zhuhai State-owned Assets considered investing in FF, a long-term engaged in the automotive industry has analyzed to Geek Park, and now whether it is the secondary market or ordinary consumers, they all feel the huge opportunities for change in the automotive industry. However, there is a lack of good targets in the market under the epidemic environment, and the Chinese companies that have not yet been listed include WM, Gaohe, Zero Run, etc., and the companies with Chinese and overseas elements are temporarily Byton and FF. The first three have enough funds or local government support, Byton has also been supported by Foxconn to start restarting, FF or become the capital market eye of the cake.
"New Energy Vehicle Investment and Financing Data Report in the Past Ten Years" released by "An Enterprise Information Inquiry Platform", the source of the figure "An Enterprise Information Inquiry Platform"
In addition, in less than a year after the Hefei government invested 7 billion yuan in Wei to "hero save the United States", it achieved more than 100 billion yuan in revenue, allowing other local governments to see the favorable results of investing in the new energy automobile industry. Therefore, in the face of FF's financing needs, Zhuhai regards Faraday Future as a ticket to enter the new energy market and wants to make a second Hefei. It is worth noting that Gree Group and Huafa Group are both enterprises under the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
Another layer of relationship is that there is indeed a substantive connection between FF and Zhuhai.
According to Tianyan, on December 14, 2020, FF established a new company in Zhuhai, "Fafa Automobile (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd." In addition to serving as an executive director and manager, Jia Chentao, the legal representative, also serves as a supervisor of LeTV Ecological Automobile (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd.
Image source "An enterprise information query platform"
Since the beginning of this year, there have been more companies that have helped Jia Yueting to build cars, but even if Jia Yueting has received multiple "assistance" to successfully mass-produce FF91, how competitive is this car now? The amazing advanced design of the FF91 at the beginning, is there still an advantage today?
<h2>How much competitiveness does the FF91 have? </h2>
For the new car manufacturing forces, factory building, new car release, mass production, and delivery are all key factors to consider the execution of enterprises.
FF technology is indeed very hard, especially in the electric vehicle three electric technology core technology, software, artificial intelligence and Internet and other aspects of the patent advantages are extremely obvious. At present, it has obtained more than 500 technical patents for new energy vehicles.
FF91 for alpine testing, picture source Jia Yueting public number
But now the new car-making forces have achieved mass production, and Weilai, Xiaopeng and Tesla have produced several cars, occupying a certain market share. So what does FF rely on to compete with other new energy vehicles?
According to FF official information, FF in the appearance, equipped with a closed front face with a penetrating LED light group and streamlined model frame; on the interior, according to relevant media reports, it has 11 screens, and integrates the car networking and artificial intelligence system; in terms of performance, FF claims that the car has a drive motor of up to 1050 horses, and the acceleration time of 100 kilometers is only 2.39 seconds; in addition, in terms of endurance, it is equipped with a 130kwh power battery provided by LG Chem. The cruising range exceeds 700 km under NEDC conditions.
If these configuration conditions are put into the market where few can mass-produce new energy vehicles two or three years ago, FF may have some competitive advantages. But in the current hot market, there is not much competitiveness.
A practitioner in the field of automobile travel once analyzed the connection travel, "In terms of power battery and endurance, FF91 does not have any advantages, because Tesla, Weilai and other car companies have released new battery plans, and the endurance has been pushed to 1000 kilometers." ”
In terms of upgrading to intelligence and automatic driving, FF has been "cut off" by many players. At present, there have been "star" players such as Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, and technology giants such as Ali, Baidu, and Huawei have joined hands with traditional car companies to come to the stage and build cars together.
It is also worth noting that FF is suspected of confusing the concept of production cars.
In January 2017, when FF released the FF91, it was called a "production car", which caused an uproar in the automotive industry at the time. Many people in the industry believe that at that time, FF91 was only an engineering prototype (ET) form, but the engineering prototype was still far from mass production.
Then, on December 9, 2020, Jia Yueting posted on social media: "After the FF91 pre-production car is assembled, it will join the existing test team to help continue to promote the FF 91 project." According to the video observation of the pre-production car officially displayed by FF, the "pre-production car" in Jia Yueting's mouth is not produced from the production line, but is almost "assembled" by hand. Even the factory building of the new car looks like a small workshop, not where the factory production line is located.
Even in the recently opened New York Experience Center store, test drives have not been publicly available.
A number of automotive experts have publicly expressed their views that mass production of FF91 is an almost impossible task. Because its configuration function is advanced, or it is faced with problems such as insufficient supplier capacity and parts production cannot keep up with the schedule, mass production is almost impossible.
Nowadays, the new energy vehicle "Dongfeng" continues to strengthen, and in the next one or two years, the new energy mass production vehicles of the Internet platform may also be launched one after another, and the competition will become more intense. As an industry insider expressed in an interview with Securities Daily: "The core of the second half of the new energy car is still the product itself. ”
Although FF has frequently conveyed the signal that it is expected to complete mass production, has always emphasized the reliability of its own technology and products, and called FF91 a "Tesla killer", Tesla's cumulative sales by the end of last year have exceeded 110,000 vehicles.
In this respect, FF91 is already a big step behind. Jia Yueting's idea is very beautiful, but in the surging new energy vehicle market, it can be described as "getting up early and catching up with a late set".