Text/Zhou Xiongfei
Edit/Midnight
Jia Yueting's Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as "FF") has a new movement.
This morning, FF held a press conference at its Hanford plant in the United States to announce that the first FF 91 quasi-production vehicle was officially assembled in the factory, and the activities held in the China FF live broadcast room were carried out in parallel with the press conference of the US factory.
The scene of the FF quasi-mass production model rolling off the production ceremony, screenshot from the FF live broadcast screen
At the press conference, with the unveiling of an FF 91 quasi-production car, FF CEO Bi Fukang and CPUO Jia Yueting also appeared in the live broadcast screen, and the two introduced the current manufacturing progress of FF 91, and also revealed the final mass production time of FF 91 and its mass production delivery plan for FF 81 and other models.
The outside world paid great attention to the conference, but most of them were disappointed after watching it.
First of all, from the perspective of the conference itself, the official release part only lasted for more than 20 minutes, so that after the conference, many netizens watching the live broadcast in the live broadcast room issued a "This is the end?" "The questioning comments and barrages.
Secondly, although the theme of FF's conference is "FF 91 first quasi-production car off the production line ceremony", there are only the speeches of Bi Fukang and Jia Yueting in the whole event, in addition, the introduction of the difference between the quasi-production model and the previously released model is only hastily brought, and does not show the detailed content.
For the activities in the live broadcast room of FF China, there is no dry goods, some are just simple lottery and simple interviews with FF China CFO.
From the press conference of the American factory to the live broadcast in China, in the eyes of the industry, FF and Jia Yueting have "drawn a cake" again. Such a "painting cake" is also needed for FF and Jia Yueting, after all, after repeated unfulfilled promises and deceptions, the trust of the capital market and consumers has been greatly reduced.
So, with the off-line of today's FF 91 quasi-production car, how much trust will FF and Jia Yueting save from the capital market and consumers? When the FF 91 is actually mass-produced, will there really be consumers paying for it?
1, FF and Jia Yueting's "painting cake" again
As before, for today's conference, FF also began to warm up in its Weibo and official APP a week in advance, creating the feeling that this conference is a foot in the door before the mass production of FF 91. As a result, the industry and the public have shown high expectations for this conference.
But as far as the press conference is concerned, such expectations have been disappointed again.
Similar to the FF listing ceremony in July last year, today's press conference was also opened by Bi Fukang and Jia Yueting driving FF 91 into the field, and the two people in the car still talked about the performance and driving experience of FF 91 procedurally, which was almost a "replica version" of the previous listing.
Subsequently, Bi Fukang and Jia Yueting respectively expressed their respective feelings on the off-line of the FF 91 quasi-production model. In Bi Fukang's view, although the FF 91 is a model released in 2017, it still has strong market competitiveness even if it is 5 years late.
Bi Fukang (left) and Jia Yueting, screenshot from FF live broadcast
He also said that the FF 91, positioned as an ultra-luxury electric SUV, has basically reached a perfect level in performance and ride experience, and FF 91 is a new species that combines the advantages of SUVs, cars and racing cars.
After Jia Yueting took the stage, in addition to praising the FF 91 like Bi Fukang, he also said that today's press conference represents that FF has entered the fourth important milestone - the mass production of pre-production vehicles for final engineering verification and certification, and the FF 91 presented today is the quasi-production model that contributed to the completion of this milestone.
According to Jia Yueting, in the future, FF 91 will be further verified and tested before mass production, and it is planned to be put into production in the third quarter of this year and can be provided with test drives in the fourth quarter. Construction is still underway at the Hanford, California plant, where the first FF 91 pre-production model was painted.
According to Wired Travel, in FF's plan, the mass production of FF 91 is divided into seven stages, namely, the completion of equipment installation to support the production and manufacture of pre-production vehicles; obtaining final use permits to pave the way for pre-production vehicle mass manufacturing; starting the infrastructure construction of the remaining production areas; mass manufacturing of pre-production vehicles for final project verification and certification; all mechanical, electrical equipment and piping systems to support the final equipment installation; and completing all infrastructure construction and equipment installation in the main vehicle manufacturing area Final mass production delivery.
In addition to the mass production plan of the FF 91, Jia Yueting also mentioned the mass production progress of the FF 81 model, saying that the latter will be manufactured by South Korea's Mingxin Group and is expected to be sold in 2024.
Just after Bi Fukang and Jia Yueting made such an introduction, the press conference of the FF 91 quasi-production car off the production line was also over. According to the statistics of the connection travel, the entire live broadcast lasted only 20 minutes, and in the process, in addition to the speeches of the two people, no introduction was made to the performance of the FF 91 quasi-mass production model and the production line of the Hanford factory.
Because of such a sudden end, so many netizens issued a "the conference is over, the car is not introduced?" at the bottom of the live broadcast screen. "Wait two hours, the press conference will be 20 minutes?" and other spit comments. In the industry's view, Jia Yueting took advantage of this conference to draw another pie to the capital market and consumers.
And such a painting cake has also become the usual means of FF and Jia Yueting.
In September last year, under the same pre-warm-up, FF jointly held an annual event called "919 Futurism Day" at its los Angeles headquarters in the United States and Beijing, China, in which there was not much substantive content except for the debut of the Chinese car team and the disclosure of the FF 91 Futurist delivery plan.
FF "919 Futurism Day", image source Faraday Future official micro
Wired Travel has described this in detail in the article "Jia Yueting has "painted cakes" for investors again", so that the annual activity was regarded as a "painting cake" between FF and Jia Yueting, and there were many such "painting cakes" before.
The reason why FF and Jia Yueting are so keen on "drawing cakes" is because they have fallen into a situation of credit bankruptcy.
2. Repeatedly untrustworthy "car-making dreams"
When FF and Jia Yueting are mentioned, the public may think more about unfulfilled promises and deception again and again.
In July last year, accompanied by Jia Yueting, FF completed the listing on the NASDAQ, although Jia Yueting, as the chief product & user experience officer of FF, was not qualified to participate in the listing bell with FF partners, but after the ceremony, he not only expressed his feelings about the listing of FF to the media, but also said that FF would become one of the leaders in the mainstream high-value user market. FF listing, image source Faraday Future official micro
The reason why Jia Yueting had the confidence to say such a thing at that time may be based on the description of the FF 91 order volume in the listing prospectus.
According to the FF listing prospectus, it said that its first model, FF 91, will be launched in mass production in July this year, and revealed the booking situation of FF 91 at that time - "We have received more than 14,000 bookings for FF 91 vehicles." ”
This booking data, coupled with the fact that the first FF offline experience store was previously located on the streets of Manhattan, New York, USA, was once regarded by the outside world as a precursor to the mass production of FF 91.
Compared with the public, the capital market is extremely calm about the listing of FF. On the day of listing, the FF U.S. stock issue price was $13.78 per share, a pre-market increase of 50%, and finally opened at $16.8 per share, up 22% from the issue price. However, less than half an hour later, FF's intraday share price fell below the issue price, and by the end of the day, the stock price was finally quoted at $13.98 per share, with a total market value of $4.511 billion.
As it turns out, such calmness is right.
Earlier this month, FF's Independent Special Investigation Committee released a report that said that through the investigation, it found that there were certain inconsistencies with the facts in the statements issued by FF investors, as well as certain weaknesses in corporate governance and compliance.
Among them, there are two main "inconsistencies", one is that "FF has previously announced that there have been 14,000 FF 91 orders", but according to this special investigation committee, "more than 14,000 FF 91 vehicle bookings have been received" may be misleading, because only hundreds of these reservations have been paid, while the others (a total of 14,000) have not been paid. ”
This also means that the popularity of FF 91 created by Jia Yueting and FF in public and in the listing prospectus is actually a lie to the public and the industry.
In addition to the order volume, Jia Yueting's previous description of his personal voice in FF is also a lie.
In September 2019, FF released a message on its official website, official micro and official public account, announcing the appointment of former "father of BMW i8" Bi Fukang as FF global CEO, and FF founder Jia Yueting will resign from the original global CEO position and transfer to the position of CPUO.
For the CEO of FF who stepped down, at that time, Jia Yueting posted a blog post on social media titled "Part-time Work and Entrepreneurship, Restart Life, Apologies, Thanksgiving and Commitment with Me", and said, "The reason why I will give up everything is to make FF complete, completely repay the remaining guarantee debt as soon as possible, and realize the dream of transforming the automobile industry." ”
However, according to the investigation of the FF Independent Special Investigation Committee, Jia Yueting still controls the development of FF by installing relatives for the FF management after stepping down as CEO.
The investigation report questions Jia Yueting's right to speak within FF, screenshot from the report
Through the "self-exposure" of FF, in the industry's view, it has debunked the lies that FF and Jia Yueting have previously laid on the public and the market, so that the credibility of FF in the industry has further declined. Wired travel has been in "Jia Yueting and two big lies, who dares to buy FF? The above content has been elaborated in the article.
Just as the so-called frozen three feet is not a cold day, the reason why FF will fall into such a crisis of trust at present is because of the many "jump tickets" for the sale of its models.
In January 2017, at the CES show in Las Vegas, USA, Faraday Future officially released its first mass-produced electric vehicle, the FF 91. Due to the performance and mileage of the model, compared with the Tesla Model X at that time, the FF 91 has attracted much attention in the industry.
At that time, Jia Yueting, standing under the magnesium lamp, confidently announced to the outside world: two months later, 300 Dream Partner versions will be sold, and ordinary consumers can already book the model on the official website, and it is expected to be sold and delivered in 2018.
In 2018, due to financial constraints, the mass production of FF 91 "jumped tickets" for the first time, and the mass production time was postponed to the first quarter of 2019.
After this, FF's situation did not improve, but with the departure of the "gold lord" Evergrande, fell into the dilemma of executive departure and large-scale layoffs, Jia Yueting, who had fled to the United States, was even forced to apply for personal bankruptcy under pressure, so that the mass production in the first quarter of 2019 became a bubble.
After this, after taking over the position of CEO of FF, Bi Fukang announced the stage goal - "The most important work of FF is to focus on the mass production and listing of FF 91, and we must ensure that the delivery is completed by the end of September 2020." It turns out that FF 91 continues to "skip tickets."
After making promises and breaking promises again and again, FF-related executives are still making commitments to the listing of FF 91.
The FF 91 quasi-production model at the off-line ceremony, screenshot from the FF live broadcast screen
In January this year, FF released a weibo saying that FF 91 will be officially mass-produced this summer, and according to the plan, the mass production version of FF 91 should be officially rolled off the production line in July. Previously, Bi Fukang also revealed the same news in public.
With today's FF 91 quasi-production version of the model off the production line, in the industry's view, FF and Jia Yueting are one step closer to the goal of listing in July this year, but there is also a problem in front of them - after so long, even if FF 91 is listed, will anyone pay for it?
3, FF 91, will anyone really pay for it?
After today's FF press conference, Wired Travel asked a number of new energy automobile industry practitioners and analysts about this question, and the answer was basically the same - "It is difficult to achieve this goal." ”
The capital market is also not optimistic about the perception of FF. On the day of FF's press conference, its U.S. stock price fell sharply by 6.32% at the close of the market, and finally closed at $4.74 per share. The share price has fallen by 71.78% compared to the opening price of $16.8 per share on the day of listing in July last year, and the market value has shrunk by nearly $3 billion from $4.5 billion on the day of listing.
FF stock price, screenshot from tiger securities APP
It is not surprising that capital and industry will have such an attitude.
First look at FF 91 itself. If you follow the meaning of Bi Fukang, the FF 91 quasi-production car shown in today's press conference is basically consistent with the final mass production model. From the appearance point of view, the FF 91 has more than 5 meters 2 length and 3 meters 2 wheelbase, which can be regarded as a medium and large SUV in terms of size.
In terms of performance, according to the official introduction of FF, thanks to a drive motor of up to 1050 horses, FF 91 can accelerate from 0-96 km to less than 2.4 seconds. In addition, thanks to the 130kwh power battery provided by LG Chem, the range of NEDC exceeds 700 km under conditions.
In terms of intelligence, in order to achieve automatic driving functions, FF 91 is also equipped with a lidar on the body. As can be seen from today's live broadcast, this lidar has been adjusted from the position of the previous front cover to the top of the front windshield.
It should be noted that such a set of configurations of FF 91, if placed in the new energy vehicle market in 2018 and 2019, can be regarded as a leading model. But in the current battlefield, perhaps the time has passed.
First of all, for consumers to value the endurance, although FF91 has a capacity of 700 kilometers, but in terms of employment, this level has not much advantage, because the same high-end Weilai, Zhiji and GAC have launched their own new battery technology, equipped with new batteries after the model can reach 1000 kilometers, and these battery technologies can be mass-produced this year.
In terms of automatic assisted driving, the use of lidar is not a new thing. At the Guangzhou Auto Show last year, the "arms race" of lidar was very hot, Xiaopeng launched the G9 equipped with two lidars, and Sharon Motors came up with a mecha dragon model equipped with 4 lidars to defend its position.
According to Wired Travel, WEIlai and Ideal will also launch their new models at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year , the ES7 and X01 , which will also be equipped with lidar. It can be seen that in the future new energy war, lidar has become an indispensable "ammunition".
In addition to hardware, in terms of automatic driving capabilities, although Bi Fukang said that FF 91 can achieve L4 level of automatic driving, it has obviously lagged behind Tesla, Weilai and other players in this ability. Because the data of the autonomous driving algorithm must rely on the real test of the vehicle to train, which is basically impossible for FF, which has not yet been mass-produced.
After talking about FF 91, let's look at the strength of FF itself.
Although FF has not yet handed over its first financial report after listing, at an investor call in December last year, FF officials said that in the three months ending September 30, 2021, it expected the loss to increase to about $143 million and the net loss to about $280 million.
In addition, FF officials also said that as of September 30, 2021, the company is expected to have a cumulative loss of about $2.8 billion, and it is expected to continue to generate significant operating losses in the foreseeable future, and will achieve profitability and positive cash flow in about 2024.
According to FF statistics, as of September 30, 2021, its cash and cash equivalents are about $667 million, and these remaining funds can guarantee that FF 91 will be listed in July this year. However, FF also expects total liabilities of approximately $354 million as of September 30, 2021.
Coupled with labor costs, rising prices of raw materials such as batteries and chips, and other macroeconomic challenges such as tariffs and supply chain constraints, the FF 91 project will add some costs. This means that after offsetting debt and increased costs, FF's capital reserves may not be able to support the mass production delivery of FF 91 after that.
FF's brand power is also not enough to support the sales of FF 91.
"Although FF has been comparing itself with ultra-luxury brands such as Maybach and Ferrari, from the perspective of development time, these brands have been developing for hundreds of years, while FF has only a few short years, far from the accumulation of such ultra-luxury brands." Zhang Junyi, managing partner of Oliver Yvrex Consulting, said this to Wired Travel.
In addition to this, in the view of Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of The North China University of Technology, due to the influence of FF and Jia Yueting's previous experience of untrustworthiness, the capital market and consumer market have become suspicious of the FF brand.
Image source Faraday Future official micro
In this context, the FF 91 is as high as more than 100 or even 2 million bicycles, whether it can be sold after mass production, has become a problem that needs to be examined.
In this situation, FF is still consuming its few remaining brand power.
Today, in parallel with the press conference of the Hanford factory in the United States, there is also a live broadcast event in FF China, in which the two supporters are more like two anchors, just bragging about the FF brand; and the event is essentially only composed of multiple rounds of lottery. As a result, some netizens commented in the live broadcast room that "FF's live broadcast activities are really humiliating." ”
Whether it is from the perspective of model strength and financial reserves, or FF's own brand power, FF 91 can achieve mass production and listing even in the third quarter of this year, and it may be difficult for consumers to pay for FF 91. For Jia Yueting, whether FF 91 can be listed as agreed is a key factor in whether his "car-making dream" will suffocate.
(The header image of this article is derived from the FF live broadcast screen.) ）