On February 24, the FF91, which has been hopping tickets for five years, finally ushered in the highlight moment of the release of the mass production model.
In faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF), this is the company's "fourth milestone" and means that it is a big step forward from the official mass delivery in July.
In fact, domestic consumers are no strangers to FF91.
As early as 2017, the model, which was then dubbed the "Global Surface Acceleration King", debuted at CES and attracted widespread attention.
However, after the release of FF91 continued to encounter "Waterloo", the mass production time was pushed back and forth, the company's founders not only left other countries, but also a series of problems such as capital, technology, personnel, factory construction, etc., can not help but repeatedly make the outside world doubt whether FF91 has been "stillborn".
However, after FF was listed on the NASDAQ as desired in July last year, the mass production of FF91 pressed the "accelerator button" again. FF CEO Bi Fukang said that FF91 is expected to achieve mass delivery in July this year as soon as possible.
Could this be another "wolf coming" story? We can't help but wonder.
According to a previous survey of FF by a US agency, it was found that of the 14,000 orders announced by FF91, only a few hundred were actually paid. Subsequently, FF confirmed the authenticity of the report and made a series of personnel changes to try to save the trust crisis that collapsed again.
Although this move is somewhat suspected of "speculation" in the eyes of the outside world, in the eyes of Kung Fu Motors, for the new car with a bad fate, there is not much time left for it to "grab the heat".
Below, at the time when FF91 is about to be mass-produced, by reviewing FF's road to car building, we may be able to see more clearly the future road of FF, whether it is "bitter and sweet", or the prospects are slim.
(1) Bumpy car road, a total of N times jump ticket FF91
Looking back at FF's road to car building, we still have to start from the winter of December 2014.
That year, Jia Yueting, then CEO of LeEco, posted a Weibo announcement that LeEco would launch the SEE (Super Electronic Ecosystem) program and officially participate in the Internet car-making boom.
Two years later, in April 2016, LeSSE SuperCar LeSSE's first ultra-high-end Internet unmanned electric concept car was released. Subsequently, with this avant-garde concept car, Jia Yueting received a first round of financing of $1.08 billion in the era of capital madness, setting a record for the first round of financing in the global intelligent electric vehicle industry.
In October of the same year, LeEco Auto took advantage of the trend to release the LeSEE concept car upgrade version - LeSEE Pro in San Francisco, USA.
Although this concept car caused a lot of sensation in the market at that time, LeEco's capital chain crisis also began to erupt at the end of this year.
Along with this, there were also surging voices of doubt about Jia Yueting's car. In particular, the Huzhou factory that LeTV invested a huge amount of 20 billion yuan to build in that year was also stalled due to the turmoil such as LeTV's capital chain and large-scale layoffs.
However, as early as 2015, Jia Yueting also began to lay out in the United States. In November 2015, Jia Yueting invested $1 billion in Faraday Future, a Silicon Valley electric vehicle startup in the United States, becoming the largest shareholder behind the scenes.
Next, a series of storms involved in the bankruptcy of LeTV, although Jia Yueting was deeply involved in financial and public opinion crisis, he still did not let go of his obsession with building cars.
It was not until October 14, 2019, that Faraday Future released a statement on its official website that Jia Yueting, founder and CPUO (Chief Product and User Officer) of the company, filed for personal bankruptcy restructuring in the United States on October 13, and FF gradually returned to the right track of car manufacturing.
However, after FF achieved "blood exchange" and replaced CEO Bi Fukang that year, the hope that FF91 could finally be successfully mass-produced was repeatedly postponed for various reasons.
In 2019, Bi Fukang bluntly said that he would guarantee that FF 91 would be mass-produced and delivered in September 2020 with his own personality, and at the same time planned to launch FF 81 at CES in 2021, directly benchmarking Tesla Model X.
Later results are known to everyone, perhaps the epidemic has hit the production progress of FF again, and the mass production version of FF91 has never been found.
It wasn't until January 28 last year, when FF and special purpose acquisition company PSAC announced a merger, and then officially landed on the NASDAQ in July, that FF91 finally came after the funds were in place.
(2) FF91 has a geometric outlook, cooperation with Geely or a turning point
After 5 years of delay, when the FF91 officially came to the consumer, we can't help but wonder, what is the prospect of this new car?
It is reported that the FF 91 is equipped with a drive motor with a horsepower of up to 1050 horses, with a peak torque of more than 1800 Nm, 2.39 seconds to complete the 100 km acceleration, equipped with a battery pack with a capacity of 130 kWh, and the NEDC has a range of more than 700 km.
In addition, FF91 also hopes to form a differentiated competitiveness in the market segment through its carefully crafted rear seat ride experience.
However, the room left for a late FF91 breakout has become increasingly narrow.
Not to mention the high-end HiPhi X, which almost "collides with its face", the selling point of the same main rear riding experience is highly sought after by the rich; and in the threshold formed by "Wei Xiaoli" today, and the situation that traditional car companies will focus on the electric vehicle market this year, the difficulty of FF91 to stand out has increased several times compared with 5 years ago.
Of course, this is only one of the aspects, I believe that what makes FF executives more headache is how the inherent impression that the current brand and Jia Yueting are too deeply bound will be reversed.
As we all know, in the past few years, Jia Yueting's huge debt problem has been hindering the development of FF, and the label of "Jia Yueting" on FF's car is too deep, just as the previous FF and Evergrande are unhappy, the core reason is that Jia Yueting is unwilling to give up control of FF.
Coupled with the recent FF91 order fraud, it is undoubtedly a major blow to FF, which is currently in a new round of revival. In the hearts of Chinese consumers, Jia Yueting, whose credit has long been bankrupt, believes that the difficulty of re-establishing human design is almost the same as "choosing a day to return to China".
However, Jia Yueting may also have a plan for this.
At the first investor event day held by FF in September last year, in addition to announcing the progress of FF91 mass production delivery, the press release specifically mentioned the cooperation with Geely.
" FF announced that the cooperation with Geely Holdings has made substantial progress, realizing the first phase of technical cooperation. At the same time, it will also promote the development of FF's business in China. ”
In FF's view, "rooted in China" is also facing the two major markets of the United States and China, which is the difference between FF and other competitors of the same type, and it is also the advantage.
In addition to the cooperation with Geely, FF even intends to attract Gree and Huafa, two housing enterprises with a state-owned background in Zhuhai, to join and pave the way for them to return to China.
However, on the eve of its listing in July last year, a filing by FF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed that cornerstone investors who had originally planned to contribute $175 million did not take a stake. The cornerstone investor is officially the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
At the same time, the progress of the cooperation between FF and Geely is actually a mystery. Because Geely has not yet made an official response to this matter.
If according to FF, its cooperation with Geely is advancing, then the road to FF's "home" may not be so difficult. At that time, it is not difficult to imagine that Geely and FF will re-establish a joint venture company and face Chinese consumers with a new brand image.
Of course, the premise of all this is believed to be that it will wait until FF91 really achieves mass production delivery, and the market feedback is still good, geely has the premise of further calculation.
To this end, it can be confirmed that the release of the mass production version of FF91 will be a battle that cannot be won or defeated.
(3) Kung Fu shooting
I still remember that when FF91 was released in 5 years, it was really a "new species" in terms of words that have been often mentioned by new car-making forces today. In this regard, Jia Yueting has indeed made pioneering efforts in reconstructing the value of automobiles.
However, in the period of time that FF missed, China's new energy vehicle market has also been "adjusted" by "Wei Xiaoli" and Tesla and other "tuning" to become more mature, whether FF91 can be the first to start we have to put a big question mark.
In fact, FF should think more about how to save the company's performance through FF91 batch delivery, and gradually reconstruct consumer trust, or through products, or through marketing, rather than repeatedly "cold rice hot fry".