At 8 a.m. today, Faraday Future released its first quasi-production FF 91 and said it would achieve mass production deliveries in the third quarter of this year. In addition, the company plans to produce its second model, the FF 81, by Myoung Shin in South Korea, which is expected to be mass-produced in 2024 and profitable in 2025. For Jia Yueting, the biggest problem is to let all walks of life regain trust, but trust is the answer to time. Jia Yueting, who has been away from home for more than five years, may still make mistakes today, but he cannot leave the public's attention, which is both pressure and a legal code to turn around.
Wen 丨 wisdom driving network Huang Huadan
After FF successfully landed on the NASDAQ, Jia Yueting, who has been working for the mass production of ff91, suffered a short selling report from J Capital Research, a short-selling agency in the United States, and at 8:00 a.m. Beijing time today, Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF) held a press conference to celebrate the successful roll-off of its first quasi-mass production FF 91.
This can be seen as a battle for the right name, but also a declaration of credibility and determination to the capital market and its partners.
There is only a word difference between "quasi-mass production" and "mass production", but how much is the actual difference?
FF said it is the first of its first quasi-production vehicles to be mass-produced for final engineering verification and certification, and more will be built in the coming months.
These quasi-production vehicles will be equipped with the same parts as the production vehicles.
It can be regarded as a mass production of FF91, and FF has reached trust and cooperation with all relevant suppliers.
However, in terms of the original planned time for mass production delivery, it was slightly postponed, and compared with the July 2022 mass production schedule announced last year, today FF postponed the mass production time of FF 91 to the third quarter of 2022.
At the press conference, Jia Yueting, the founder of FF and the global CPUO (Chief Product & User Officer), and the company's CEO Bi Fukang drove the newly off-line FF91 slowly to the front of the stage.
The two people who got out of the car were in a good mood.
Jia Yueting said: "The completion of the first FF 91 semi-production car is an exciting moment for all futurists. ”
After the two delivered speeches, Jia Yueting, as the first passenger of the first quasi-production vehicle of the FF 91, experienced a dynamic acceleration, braking and pile winding test of the FF 91 on the test site outside the Hanford factory.
Rendering effect, FF91 performance is good.
Jia Yueting said: "This is crazy, what an exciting day! ”
Although there is still some time to go before mass production, after just experiencing the short-selling event, Jia Yueting first stood up to announce the latest progress of FF91, throwing himself to the center of public opinion, which is actually more like a response to the question: "FF has not fallen, and is still seriously building cars according to plan."
——01——
The bumpy road to mass production of the FF 91
The question now is whether the US capital market still trusts Jia Yueting? Does the FF91's quasi-capacity restore this trust?
Today's FFEI opened at $4.57 low by 3.58%, the lowest explored $4.42, the market reaction was not positive, and can even be described as some pessimism.
For Jia Yueting, the biggest problem is to let all walks of life regain trust, but trust is the answer to time.
Unlike China's domestic impression of Jia Yueting's polarization, the suspicion of Jia Yueting in the United States mainly began on October 7, 2021 local time, when the US short-selling agency J Capital Research released a 28-page short selling report on Jia Yueting's FF company.
▲ Source: J Capital Research Report
The report begins with a blunt statement: "We don't think FF can sell even one car."
J Capital said it reached this conclusion through on-site visits, analysis of the company's financial report data and technical capabilities, and combined with the company's series of post-IPO capital operations.
In response to J Capital's short report, FF established an independent special investigation committee for FF.
However, the results of the investigation have also involved the problem of order fraud.
On the 9th of this month, the relevant person in charge of FF said:
"The reservation form issued by the company includes two types of paid reservation orders and free reservation orders, of which the company collects more than 14,000 FF91 reservations, which have the information of all booking users, which is free booking data, and the company's 300 invitation system limited edition FF91s published by the company are part of the paid reservation form."
In other words, of the 14,000 orders previously claimed by FF, only a maximum of 300 were deposited.
As soon as this news came out, public opinion was in an uproar.
The news of "Jia Yueting is fake again" spread all over the Internet for a while.
Today, half a month after the incident, FF held a press conference to show its first quasi-mass production FF 91 off the production line, which is more like a response to doubts: "We are still seriously building cars as planned." ”
The plans revealed by FF at the press conference are:
Mass production of the FF 91 will be achieved in the third quarter of 2022, and in 2024, it will cooperate with South Korea's Myoung Shin to produce its second electric vehicle, FF81, and achieve profitability in 2025.
Plans for FF81 and FF71 have long been in place, but the partner has changed to Myoung Shin, a subsidiary of South Korean auto parts manufacturer MS Autotech, and the mass production time is set for 2024 two years later.
At the same time, this also shows that Jia Yueting's plan to seek FF81 and FF71 to land in China has no substantial progress to be exposed.
Will the FF 91's road to mass production be on the way to mass production five years after the appearance of its first concept car?
Five years ago, on January 4, 2017, Beijing time, FF 91 made its debut at CES in Las Vegas.
Jia Yueting defines it as a new species of bold innovation in the field of electric mobility – combining the performance of supercars, precise maneuverability, the comfort of ultra-luxury passenger cars and the unique integration of smart Internet functions.
At that time, the official data released showed that zero hundred accelerated in 2.39 seconds, three motors with 1050 horsepower, equipped with 130 kWh batteries, and could achieve an endurance of more than 700 kilometers under NEDC conditions.
In addition to performance, the FF 91 also features a "third Internet living space" and luxurious first-class seating enjoyment. Make the car a smart space between home and destination (office, school, etc.).
The rear seats, with their industry-leading 60-degree seat recline angle, place passengers in the best biomechanical and ergonomic positions for the most comfortable ride.
The seat also offers massage, heating and ventilation cooling.
On today's quasi-production car, Jia Yueting once again repeated the above data, but from the outside world' perception, the freshness is declining, and FF 91 has some of the regrets of the general public from a new species.
There are currently three gears on its booking page, and the current edition is limited to 300 vehicles and requires a deposit of 50,000.
However, because its price of more than 1.4 million yuan means that it will not become FF's cash cow.
Then it means that the FF81 and FF71 are the core models that continue and expand FF.
The planned FF81 model now begins to cooperate with South Korean companies, which is naturally a counter-evidence that its business in China is not going well from the perspective of FF China, but according to South Korean media reports, Myoung Shin Group, a large South Korean auto industry group, has received a total of 55 billion won of investment from private equity fund SGPE.
The foundry memorandum of understanding signed between Mingxin Group and Faraday Future (FF) has become the key to the success of its round of financing.
This shows that FF still has appeal in the industry and in the capital market.
That's a positive sign.
——02——
Jia Yueting's ongoing financial crisis
From its debut to today's first quasi-production car off the production line, the FF 91 took five years. The real mass production has yet to be verified.
Why is it so difficult for Jia Yueting's car to be mass-produced?
The main reason, of course, is the lack of money.
FF was founded in the United States in 2014 by Jia Yueting, when LeTV was just like The Sun.
But since then, with the bankruptcy of LeEco, FF has also suffered a break in the capital chain in an instant.
In 2017, Jia Yueting himself fled the United States after being issued personal restrictions and capital freeze orders by multiple courts, and FF became a chip for his comeback.
However, the break in the capital chain has caused FF to embark on a long financing road since then.
In 2017, when Evergrande was in financial difficulties in FF, it invested 2 billion US dollars at a low price, accounting for 45% of the shares.
After this, there were many versions of the control struggle between the two sides in China, the only confirmation was that Evergrande was still the largest shareholder of FF, but it had no decision-making power on the board of directors.
After the discord with Sunac and Evergrande, FF has been in a state of financial constraints.
At that time, in order to smoothly promote the listing of FF, on May 21, 2020, local time, Jia Yueting successfully applied for personal bankruptcy reorganization.
After the successful realization of personal bankruptcy, all the FF equity held by Jia Yueting was transferred to the creditor trust, and he no longer owned the FF equity as the founder of FF. The day-to-day management of the company was also handed over to FF Global CEO Bi Fukang. Jia Yueting serves as FF's global CPUO and global partner.
▲ Bi Fukang and Jia Yueting at the press conference.
In July 2021, FF listed on the NASDAQ through SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company).
FF stock code FFIE, issued at $13.78 and opened at $16.8. But then it took a sharp turn, almost falling below the issue price, and finally closed at $13.98, with a total market capitalization of about $4.5 billion.
Although the performance on the first day of the listing was not satisfactory, the listing alone has already brought FF $1 billion in cash flow.
At that time, Jia Yueting said that the mass production delivery of FF 91 would be completed within 12 months, that is, by July 2022.
But the capital market does not seem to be optimistic about the future of FF. In the six months since its listing in July 2021, FFIE's share price has been on the decline, falling to $4.74 per share as of today, with a total market capitalization of about $1.537 billion.
Compared with the market value at the time of listing, it fell by two-thirds.
At that time, there were rumors that when the market value of FF exceeded $20 billion, the value of Jia Yueting's shares could be offset against its domestic debt, but the performance of FF after listing did not support its full personal credit in the short term.
According to incomplete estimates, FF has lost $2.8 billion so far.
However, according to FF CFO Chuck McBride, the company's cash flow is currently normal, which can fully support the mass production of FF 91.
——03——
Radical Boss Jia
In addition to the lack of funds, Zhinengqiche believes that Jia Yueting's slightly radical idea of building cars is also a major reason why its mass production is so difficult.
Although the above-mentioned wisdom driver said that FF 91 has been born from a new species to a general public, it should be remembered that FF 91 was first launched 5 years ago.
Even today, 5 years later, its performance, intelligent driving and cockpit requirements are outdated, and even slightly surpass other car companies of the same era.
Like the zero-hundred-speed acceleration of 2.39 seconds, the high-energy density battery of 130 kWh, and even the lidar that has only become popular in recent years, the FF 91 released in 2017 has ambitions.
This undeniably proves Jia Yueting's vision and foresight.
But for FF, which is building a car for the first time and has a shortage of funds, from technology to supply chain to brand value, it cannot be solved in a short period of time.
Jia Yueting has been at the top of Chinese social media for many years, but his attention has recently declined.
From a personal point of view, after experiencing round after round of negative storms and setbacks, Boss Jia still insists on building a car, and the image of Xiao Qiang, who can't die, is getting stronger and stronger, and the title of liar is gradually fading.
But Jia Yueting, who has been away from home for more than five years, may still make mistakes in the process of promoting the mass production of FF 91 today, but he cannot leave the public's attention, which is both pressure and a legal code to turn around.
Only with attention can there be sales, and only then will it attract the capital of this era.
However, even the characters with topics in the field of public opinion may also be diluted.
Jia Yueting must also confront the laws of communication, which is approaching the window of winning back the trust of the public.
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