After the final painting inspection, welcomed by two columns of employees, an FF 91 left the direction of the production line and walked slowly toward the crowd.
Jia Yueting, founder and chief product officer of FF, who sat in the main co-pilot, and Bi Fukang, CEO of FF, could not hide their excitement. It's been five years since the first model was launched, and for those who had been looking forward to it, the FF 91 was on the news and on social media, but it was slow to appear on the mass production line where it should have appeared.
Its final mass production time has also become the biggest doubt of the followers. Today, at Faraday Future's (hereinafter referred to as FF) Hanford plant in California, FF officially announced the completion of the first "quasi-production vehicle" assembly of the FF 91.
FF 91 quasi-production version sailed off the production line Source: FF official
Everything seems to be moving forward in full swing. Bi Fukang explained at the scene that "most of the components of this "quasi-production" model are the same as those of the mass production car, and the subsequent testing and verification links have also been scheduled.
However, the delivery time of FF 91 has been postponed again, from "July 2022" to "Third Quarter of 2022". Jia Yueting said on Weibo that at that time, he would "deliver the luxury FF 91 of Jizhi Technology on time and with high quality".
The FF 91 is infinitely close to mass production
After the first car rolled off the production line, Jia Yueting and Bi Fukang carried out a dynamic acceleration, braking and pile winding test on the spot in the FF 91. In the video, the performance of the vehicle is relatively stable.
FF 91 pile winding test Source: FF official
From the appearance point of view, this quasi-production version of the model has not changed much from the previously released version. According to Bi Fukang, only some details have been changed, "the quasi-production FF 91 is equipped with new headlights, rear lights, lidar and front and rear boxes, including a new livery and external logo." ”
At the same time, the position of the sensor has changed. In the previously announced version, the FF 91 is equipped with a smart lifting 3D lidar, and the lidar of the vehicle on display this time has been moved above the front windshield.
At the launch ceremony, although the official did not disclose other parameters of the vehicle, Jia Yueting stressed more than once that the performance of the FF 91 will surpass that of some Maybach and Ferrari models. However, this statement has also aroused the doubts of some followers, "Comparing electric vehicles with fuel vehicles seems to be the wrong target." ”
According to official information, the futurist version of the FF 91 that can be booked at present uses a three-motor drive, which can output a maximum power of 783Kw, reaching 1050 horsepower, and accelerating from 0-96km/h in only 2.39 seconds. Equipped with a 130 kWh battery pack, the EPA has an endurance of about 600 km.
However, the continuous postponement of mass production delivery time has also caused the expectations of many prospective car owners to drop again and again.
"Seriously, I think when I pick up the car, the car will be 'obsolete'." In April 2021, after seeing the news that FF 91 had opened reservations, Ashin did not hesitate to book one. As a practitioner in the field of artificial intelligence, he was keen to explore new things and was "attracted by its sense of technology at that time." Earlier, he was one of the top ten users of model X in China.
Indeed, when it debuted in 2017, the FF 91 did earn enough eyeballs. From the perspective of design, the shape of the FF 91 combines the characteristics of SUVs, cars and sports cars, which was quite subversive at the time. Even Li Xiang, the founder of Ideal Car, once expressed his opinion on social platforms, saying that "this is a really good car."
However, in 2022, when the industry competition and the technical strength of each company are constantly improving, such appearance and performance parameters are no longer novel. Today, the biggest highlight is that the car is equipped with 11 screens, with a total viewing size of more than 100 inches.
However, compared with the basic configuration of these cars, the competitive direction of smart electric vehicles has long been upgraded to the competition of computing power. For today's standard that defines high-end intelligent electric vehicles- automatic driving, FF has not mentioned anything.
At today's press conference, Jia Yueting said that the current FF 91 has completed the fourth milestone - mass manufacturing of quasi-production vehicles for final engineering verification and certification.
In October 2021, FF set seven manufacturing milestones for FF 91 mass production. As of now, in addition to the latest fourth milestone, "equipment installation for the production and manufacture of quasi-mass production vehicles", "final production and use qualification ("COO") of the factory" and "start of infrastructure construction in the remaining production areas" have been realized.
At this stage, there are three milestones left in the FF 91 from mass production, namely "all mechanical, electrical equipment and piping systems (MEP) are up and running", "all infrastructure construction and equipment installation in the main manufacturing area of the vehicle" and finally "SOP (Start Of Production)".
According to Bi Fukang, the Hanford plant has added 350 new employees and will carry out mass production this year.
The two models are advancing simultaneously to achieve profitability in 2025
Bi Fukang said in today's press conference that in the future, the Hanford factory will produce FF 91 and South Korea's Myoug Shim will oem FF 81, under these two models, FF will achieve profitability in 2025.
According to the latest financial data released by FF, FF expects the net loss in the third quarter of 2021 to expand significantly to $280 million, compared with a net loss of $33 million in the same period last year.
Unlike the high-end luxury positioning of FF 91, the positioning of FF 81 will be oriented to the high-end mass market. If tesla's experience is referenced, a volume model with a larger user base may be able to make FF really come out of the loss.
FF three models positioning Source: FF official website
From the perspective of FF's three product plans, the FF 81 starts at $59,000, compared with the Weilai ES8 and BMW 5 Series. The FF 71 is aimed at the mass market, starting at $45,000, compared to the Model 3/Y.
Before the first FF 91 rolled off the production line, FF had already found a production location for the second model, the FF 81.
On February 10, FF announced that the next model, the FF81, will be produced in South Korea, working with local equipment manufacturer Myoug Shim to guarantee production in 2024.
Myoung Shin's parent company is MS Mingxin Group, which is one of the five largest thermoforming manufacturers in South Korea, the main supplier is Hyundai Motor, but also Daimler, Hyundai Kia, Renault-Nissan, Tesla and other car companies to provide core components.
In 2019, Myoung Shin signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Byton Motors and participated in its Series C financing. At that time, Myoung Shin planned to acquire GM's old factory to oem by Byton Motors. In July 2021, Byton Motors was filed for bankruptcy reorganization, and Myoung Shin's foundry plan was shelved.
In cooperation with FF, Myoung Shin's Korea plant mainly produces new products (FF 81) that FF has not yet released, and is expected to start production in the second half of 2023 and reach a production capacity of 270,000 units by 2025. Moreover, in addition to the large-scale production and manufacturing capabilities, the factory also has an exclusive port transportation channel.
In an interview, Bi Fukang also revealed that one of the reasons for choosing to cooperate with The Korean foundry was due to "lower trade tariffs when exporting from South Korea to other countries."
In addition, FF also seems to be preparing for "returning home". Recently, FF's subsidiary of Fafa Automobile in China, Ruiyi Automobile, has undergone a recent industrial and commercial change, and the registered capital has increased from 10 million yuan to 30 million yuan, an increase of 200%, which is regarded as a symbol of increasing business.
At the same time, it can be seen on the official website of FF that in the past month, Fafa Automobile has released 132 recruiting positions, distributed in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.
However, the most urgent thing in front of FF at present is still to ensure the mass production of the first model, the FF 91.
Although FF said on an investor conference call in January 2020 that it had identified 94% of core parts suppliers, in a report released by J Capital Research, a US short-selling agency, 5 months ago, it pointed out the black history of FF's arrears to suppliers - the report questioned the history of FF's arrears to suppliers, which will lead to suppliers withdrawing from cooperation in the future, or will cause financial pressure on mass production.
The author | Ding unique
Edit the | Wang Yan