Faraday Future announced a partnership with Myoung Shin to develop a second electric model

文/Greg Gardner

Faraday Future, a struggling maker of electric cars, has declared itself the next Tesla. On Wednesday, Faraday Future announced a partnership with South Korean automaker Myoung Shin, which the two companies hope to launch the FF81 model in 2024.

Compared to Faraday's FF91 model, the FF81 is more of a mass-market electric vehicle. Production of the FF91 is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2022.

Faraday, founded in Carson, Calif., in 2014, first disclosed the FF91 model at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, but it has not yet gone into production. At that launch, Faraday executives promised to offer a number of additional features on the car, including a range of self-driving assist features, such as a lidar sensor that can emerge from the hood when needed.

Although this element was later abandoned, Faraday still plans to equip Velodyne's Velarry H800 solid-state lidar system on the upcoming FF91.

Faraday also said it is an internet and technology company that offers artificial intelligence products.

More than a year ago, the company announced that after merging with Special Purpose Acquisitions (SPAC) Property Solutions Acquisition Corp., its shares would be traded on the NASDAQ exchange, when the company was valued at $3.4 billion.

The stock, which began trading in July last year under the ticker symbol FFIE, has fallen more than 60 percent since its listing, closing at $4.39 on Wednesday.

Last October, investment and short-selling company J Capital Research released a report predicting that Faraday would never launch an electric car.

According to a press release outlining its partnership, FF81 will be assembled at Myoung Shin's plant in Gunsan, South Korea. Myoung Shin has also promised to produce the number of cars Faraday expects to sell in the future, but it is unclear how many of those projected quantities will be.

The author of this article is a Forbes contributor and the content of this article represents the views of the author only.

Translated by Vivian School Li Yongqiang