Text | ai Finance and Economics Agency Xue Yongwei
Edit | Mao Shiyang
Ferrari Future (faraday future) is officially listed on the NASDAQ today under the trade symbol "ffie". In the evening, 6 external partners rang the opening bell together, and global CEO Bi Fukang and founder Jia Yueting applauded offstage.
In the previous live listing video, Jia Yueting introduced and test-drove ff's only production model, the FF 91, and communicated in English throughout the process.
After the bell-ringing ceremony, Jia Yueting posted on FF's official app, "FF 91 futurist and FF 91 are currently the only smart tram products in the world that are one grade higher than Tesla Model x and s plaid in terms of product and technology positioning." ”
And said, "ff is not only an electric vehicle company, but also an Internet high-tech company, AI product company, software company and user ecology company." ”
However, unlike Jia Yueting's optimism, industry insiders have expressed more caution. "I'm not very optimistic about the prospects of ff in the capital market." Feng Shiming, an analyst in the automotive industry, told AI Finance and Economics that "it has not yet shown a more eye-catching performance in product positioning, organizational structure, listing strategy, and cost control." ”
According to FF's latest valuation, the valuation of the listed company after ff is completed is about $3.4 billion. "All valuations are supported by products and long-term operations, and ff's valuation may not be able to land in the end." Feng Shiming said.
According to the prospectus, ff currently has no revenue. In fact, ff in the new energy track can be said to be "up early to catch a late set". Founded in 2014, ff announced the completion of a $1 billion Series A round of financing the following year, with LeTV founder Jia Yueting as global CEO and chief product officer.
In 2016, the LeTV empire collapsed, and founder Jia Yueting went to the United States to invest in a new business of car manufacturing, and has not returned to China so far. In September 2019, Jia Yueting resigned as the original CEO and became the CPUO (Chief Product and User Officer). In April this year, Jia Yueting was banned from the securities market for life by the CSRC, which means that Jia Yueting will no longer have access to China's capital market.
Jia Yueting said in the latest article that FF 91 futurist and FF 91 are currently the only products in the world that are higher than Tesla Model X and S PLAID in terms of product and technology positioning.
A few days ago, ff's first mass production model ff 91 opened reservations, the news of booking 50,000 yuan has caused heated discussion, and the controversy over the only mass-produced model of this ff has not stopped.
From the appearance point of view, the F91 model style is more avant-garde, known for its sense of technology. The vehicle is available in both black and white, with a side mask that spans the SUV's body shape, frameless glass and a colour-blocked roof.
Zhong Shi, an expert of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Circulation Association, described to ai Finance and Economics that he had test-drive ff91 feelings, which was at the 2016 LeTV Las Vegas show, "The biggest feeling at that time was that the car was fast, the appearance was beautiful, and the show of the year was also very cool, at that time, LeTV was thriving, and building cars was also expected, but now, it is not a big deal for electric vehicles to drive so fast." ”
However, the domestic price of 2 million yuan is the factor that really deters many users. According to the data of the Association of Passenger Transporters, in June, the domestic new energy vehicle sales ranking, Wuling Hongguang mini ranked first, sales of 29143 units, more than 20,000 on sale. The second-place Tesla Model 3, sales of 16515 vehicles, the price of 250,900, model y ranked third, the price killed to 276,000, BYD Qin Plus DMI ranked fourth, sales of more than 5,000 vehicles, and the same point with ff91 is that it is also a new model, but the price killed to 107,800.
As far as the Chinese market is concerned, whether the ff91, which is positioned as a luxury high-end model, can be supported by brand power also needs to be tested. On product popularity, ff has to face competition from brands such as Tesla and "Wei Xiaopeng". Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Association, previously told AI Finance and Economics that at present, new energy vehicles are divided into five forces, namely Tesla, new car manufacturing forces, traditional car companies, joint ventures and luxury cars, of which Tesla performed the best.
In addition, even if the product gradually withdraws, there is still a lot of homework that ff needs to make up.
"New energy vehicles are actually more fighting for their own software, which relies on the accumulation of big data, but ff currently has data support." An auto industry analyst told AI Finance.
With the current "ceiling" Tesla reference system of new energy vehicles, its early technology geeks developed a technical route by Silicon Valley technology geeks, and later there was the addition of technology big man Musk, the intelligent trend of battery management system, motor control system, battery consistency detection system and so on is obvious, and even some commentators believe that Tesla is "closer to a software company." But even so, Tesla vehicle accidents still occur from time to time.
Crises of trust catalyze existential crises. Since the LeEco crisis in 2016, the chain reaction of ff on the other side of the ocean has never stopped. Founder Jia Yueting's debt problem in China has directly led to difficulties in financing ff. Next, there are factory construction shutdowns and mass production plans that cannot be realized for five years, which also makes ff products "repeatedly jump tickets".
In July 2017, according to CbN, the FF Nevada plant was shut down. In this regard, Jia Yueting once released a Weibo response: In order to ensure that products are delivered on time, the ff 91 high-end factory will be moved to a new location, and fully transform the existing plant and promote equipment procurement to achieve mass production as soon as possible. At the same time, it will continue to maintain the north Las Vegas apex factory plot, and the construction plan will be adjusted from three phases to two phases.
However, the promise of that year was not fulfilled. As of now, FF's latest commitment to mass production is that FF 91 will be officially unveiled at the Investor Day held at its los Angeles headquarters on September 21, and will be listed in the first half of 2022.
To make matters worse, today there is news that "Zhuhai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission terminated its shareholding in ff". As early as January this year, it was reported that the Zhuhai State-owned Assets Consortium composed of Gree and Huafa Group invested 2 billion yuan and discussed the construction of its production base.
The problem of the capital chain makes it seem more difficult to build self-built sales channels. Some auto industry analysts told AI Finance and Economics that "the rent in downtown Shanghai can reach more than one million a month, and ff may not be able to take it out." ”
FF opened up more than 22%, as of the evening of July 22, Beijing time, the increase narrowed to 15%, the stock price was reported at $15.58, the market value of $5.1 billion.
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