Per reporter: Dong Tianyi Per editor: Pei Jianru
Jia Yueting, who has not met for a long time, once again appeared in the public eye and brought the latest news from Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF).
At 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on February 24, Jia Yueting, the founder of FF Company and CPUO in the United States, announced at the FF Hanford factory that the first quasi-production vehicle of FF 91 has been assembled and testing and verification work is underway. At this time, more than five years have passed since the global debut of FF 91 in Las Vegas, USA in January 2017.
Image source: Screenshot of the live broadcast of the FF conference
At today's press conference, Jia Yueting and FF Global CEO Bi Fukang took turns to introduce the changes in FF 91 in the past five years. Bi Fukang said that the new version of the FF 91 released this time, updated with front and rear lights, lidar, storage box and new livery, "the body chassis is very low, with a good power system." ”
What is different from before is that Jia Yueting, who stood in front of the real car and spoke, was obviously more confident than the "PPT period". "The FF 91 will be the first truly luxury electric vehicle on the market, with the first phase of its market goal reaching spire users worldwide," he said. The emergence of FF 91 will subvert traditional luxury brands. ”
Perhaps eager to understand how the FF 91 will reach spire users around the world, Jia Yueting did not forget to add: "The acceleration of the FF 91 from zero to 100 kilometers is far more than that of the Maybach, and it is faster than most Ferrari models." According to the information previously disclosed by FF, the 0 to 60 mph acceleration of FF 91 only takes 2.39 seconds, can output 1050 horsepower, can travel more than 300 miles on a single charge, and has a cruising range of up to 700 kilometers under NEDC conditions.
At the same time, the press conference also disclosed the latest progress of FF's second electric vehicle, FF 81. Bi Fukang said that the current FF has signed a foundry agreement with The South Korean large automobile industry group Mingxin Group, FF 81 will be mass production in 2024, and it is expected that FF will achieve profitability in 2025.
In Jia Yueting's view, the roll-off of the FF 91 quasi-production model is the "fourth milestone" of FF. Judging from the information conveyed at the press conference, FF is also methodically promoting the delivery of mass production, and all this reflects that Jia Yueting is only one step away from the realization of his car-making dream, or only "delivery".
It is worth mentioning that on the same day that FF announced the holding of the press conference, Jia Yueting's "creditors" have also begun to act. According to Qixinbao, on February 23, Jia Yueting added three new pieces of resumption of enforcement information, with a total of more than 2.5 billion yuan in enforcement targets, involving disputes between Jia Yueting and Ping An Securities, Huarong Securities and other companies, and the enforcement courts were all the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing Municipality. Up to now, the total amount of Jia Yueting's execution has exceeded 5.2 billion yuan.
Despite this, many netizens still expressed their support for Jia Yueting and FF, and are full of expectations for the upcoming FF 91. Some netizens left a message saying, "From the perspective of building a car, Boss Jia is still very forward-looking." If there was no (thunderstorm) in that year, the current electric vehicle market pattern is not easy to say. ”
Image source: Sina Weibo
At the same time, in the capital market, the expectations of the outside world for the FF 91 quasi-production car are also reflected in the stock price of FF. On the day of the press conference, FF (FFIE) rose 8.5% before the session, but after the opening, it opened high and went low. As of the close of U.S. stocks on February 23, FF closed at $4.74 per share, down 6.32%, with a total market capitalization of $1.537 billion, more than 60% of the market value of about $4.5 billion at the beginning of the listing.
Image source: Oriental Fortune
It should be noted that during the press conference, Jia Yueting and Bi Fukang still did not explain the specific parameters, listing date and price of FF 91, and the plan originally scheduled for official delivery in July this year was also changed to the third quarter of this year.
In fact, in August last year, the FF official conveniently announced that the FF 91 has completed long-distance actual road testing and durability testing including battery and powertrain components, and said that in the next few months, more FF 91 pre-production vehicles will roll off the production line for testing, research and development and vehicle upgrades. At that time, Jia Yueting and Bi Fukang also opened champagne to celebrate.
Image source: Sina Weibo (@Jia Yueting)
Now that half a year has passed, FF 91 has evolved from a "pre-production" model to a "quasi-mass production" model, and the too slow mass production progress has made many netizens question it. Some netizens left a message under Jia Yueting's personal Weibo, saying, "The game is almost over, why haven't you set off yet?" ”
More netizens joked: "The first 'pregnant', other people's children are about to read junior high school, this is still in the fetal movement, the idea of wanting to have a big baby is correct, but it is also worrying that it will be 'stillborn'." ”
It is worth mentioning that just last October, the US investment agency J Capital Research also questioned the construction of the FF plant in a short report on FF companies released by it. The above report said that FF proposed in a report that progress has been made in manufacturing at the Hanford plant and promised to restart and complete mass production within seven months. However, when he visited the Hanford factory three times between August and September last year, he found that FF did not move much and the factory was very quiet.
Not only that, J Capital Research questioned FF from multiple angles such as FF's production capacity, capital operation performance, R&D investment, and Jia Yueting's own penalties in China through FF's financial report data and public data analysis, and bluntly said, "I don't think FF can sell even one car." ”
Image source: Sina Weibo (@FaradayFuture)
Affected by this, FF's 2021 Q3 financial report has not yet been released, and it has received a warning letter from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a result. In addition, a special committee of FF's independent directors found that FF had received more than 14,000 booking orders for FF 91 vehicles, with only a few hundred of them paid, while others were not paid.
The industry also believes that the industry still believes that the FF will still be very difficult to deliver the first mass production car in the third quarter of this year, the FF 91, and to achieve profitability and positive cash flow in two years (that is, 2024). After all, for such a car company that has not yet launched a mass production car, it is a challenge to achieve profitability in two years.
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