After taking a breather, one of the original new-mobility companies, Faraday Future (FF), is back on the move. Founded in May 2014 by visionary YT Jia, the company introduced itself to the world at the CES 2016 in Las Vegas with the FF ZERO1. That dream-car concept previewed design elements for a “fully developed” electric vehicle (EV) beta prototype revealed in August 2016. A lot of fanfare followed with the 2017 CES reveal of its first “production” car, the FF 91 EV. Soon after, the company’s progress to market launch slowed to a crawl.

However, last week the California-based company announced its global manufacturing strategy for its “class-defining” FF 91. If all goes according to plan, FF’s flagship EV will hit the market in 2022, featuring a 1050-hp (783-kW) three-motor powertrain for 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) acceleration in less than 2.4 s. The company promises “a revolutionary user experience” for the car, designed to create a mobile, connected, and luxurious third Internet living space.

Primary manufacturing of the FF 91 will take place at the company’s refurbished 1.1 million-ft² facility in Hanford, CA, which has a production capacity of about 10,000 vehicles per year. It is expected to be ready to begin production within 12 months of the closing of FF’s merger with the PSAC (Property Solutions Acquisition Corp.) SPAC (special purpose acquisition company). Design firm Ware Malcomb will finalize FF’s architectural planning, interior design, and civil engineering for the facility.

“FF has already completed significant investment at our Hanford manufacturing facility, and with the additional funding from our merger with PSAC, we anticipate that the plant will be up and running in the near future,” said Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, Global CEO of FF.

FF expects its merger with PSAC to close next month, with the combined company listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FFIE—the “I” representing Intelligent and Internet, and the “E” Ecosystem and Electric.

 

Experience, execution, attracting talent

Since announcing the PSAC merger in January, momentum has been accelerating for FF, steered by Breitfeld, the Global CEO since September 2019. The Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering spent around 20 years at BMW, most notably helping to launch in 2007 the “i” program. Launched as a startup within a big corporate organization, its goal was to not only to develop future mobility technology and product, but also new business models and ways of working with suppliers to transform BMW into more of a tech company. It resulted in two initial products—the electrified i3 small hatchback and i8 supercar. He headed the program for the latter.

Breitfeld’s success caught the eyes of three big Chinese entrepreneurs—Terri Gou of Foxconn, Pony Ma of Tencent, and Febglei Liu from Harmony Auto Group—who asked him to found a new company in 2017 (with Daniel Kirchert) that became Byton. He ran the company developing smart, electric, connected cars for three years as CEO and Chairman. However, Breitfeld said that bringing a state-owned company in as a primary investor, and heightened trade frictions between the U.S. and China, led to a shutdown of U.S. and German operations and a move to China. He left the company shortly after in April 2019.

His two key takeaways from the Byton experience are that it is crucial for a company to own and develop leading-edge technology and care must be exercised when courting investors. Breitfeld has applied those learnings to Faraday Future—and is bullish on the new company’s prospects.

“The advantage we have right now as a company is that we don’t have legacy—and billions invested in plants and in old technology,” he said. “[We] have a clear vision, no legacy, we can just do it; but this means we have to move fast.”

In rebuilding FF for its second start, he has been focusing the company’s restructuring on what he says is the company’s one big shortcoming—not being able to execute.

“It had always a great vision, but was never [able] to bring a product into the market,” he said. “There’s a saying in China, and we have the same in German, basically something like the longest journey starts with a single step. And this simple step you have to do.”

To overcome the over-promising and under-delivering of the past, “which is poison for capital markets,” Breitfeld focused on rebuilding FF’s leadership. He brought in people like Bob Kruse, Faraday’s Senior VP of Product Execution, who has a track record of execution as CTO of Karma Automotive. He also hired Benedikt Hartmann, a former colleague from BMW, for “the most important function right now” related to setting up the supply chain.

“These are people who know how to do cars, and who did this before successfully,” he said. “This puts us in a strong position now because you have a team of people that knows how to execute and how to bring a car to production.”

Other execs helping Breitfeld guide FF to market reality are YT Jia, Chief Product & User Ecosystem Officer; Tin Mok, Global EVP; Zvi Glasman, CFO; Matthias Aydt, SVP, Business Development & Product Definition; Hong Rao, VP, IoV, Autonomous Driving & AI; Christian Gobber, VP, O2O Sales; Jerry Wang, VP, Capital Markets; and Philip Bethell, VP, VLE & Manufacturing.

Since starting a new-mobility company “costs a lot of money,” much of what Breitfeld and his team have done is focused on making the company “more investable.” While the coronavirus slowed things down a bit, the potential SPAC transaction helped re-accelerate their efforts.

Faraday was approached by several SPACs, according to Breitfeld, selecting PSAC as its partner. It had an oversubscribed PIPE at the beginning of 2021 and expects more than a billion dollars from the proceeds once it is closed.

The restructuring also provided an opportunity to strengthen relationships with suppliers.

“When I joined, the company owed $150 million or even a little bit more to suppliers,” Breitfeld recalled. “During the restructuring process, all these claims were bundled in a vendor trust secured against the assets of the company. In preparation for the SPAC transaction, Faraday was able to convert this vendor trust into equity.”

All of the suppliers in the vendor trust accepted the conversion, becoming shareholders.

“It’s a strong win-win situation,” he added. “They have a fundamental interest to make this company successful.”

 

Visionary electric vehicle

By most accounts, the FF 91 was visionary four years ago when it was revealed at CES.

“We all wish that it could have been launched four years ago,” said Breitfeld, but market perception then “was different. Today, the markets are waiting for this kind of progress. We just have to get it out, and people will buy it because markets are exploding.”

While the competition has gotten closer, Roland Berger recently validated that FF is still leading in some key powertrain areas. In its September 2020 analysis, the management consultancy showed FF 91 battery-pack-level energy density at 187 and 173 W·h/kg, without and with coolant, respectively, with the nearest production competitor, the Tesla Model 3 at 163 W·h/kg. The FF 91’s power-to-weight ratio for the rear electric drive unit is 3.6 kW/kg, versus 3.0 kW/kg for Tesla’s Model S.

Of the powertrain advantage, Breitfeld says that the others are coming closer and that eventually “everyone will have 1000 hp one day.” However, “it doesn’t make sense to go to 600 to 700 miles of range, from my perspective, this is complete nonsense. Once the charging network is in place with fast charging, the differentiation on the powertrain will become smaller, but we still have an asset.”

FF’s battery pack technology is a key differentiator for the car and its Variable Platform Architecture (VPA), enabling 378-mi EPA and 700-km NEDC ranges from the 130-kWh battery pack and fast charging at up to 500 mi (804 km) per hour. The FF 91 uses the standard 21700 cylindrical form factor, but the company credits most of its performance to a fully submerged battery cooling system, which was patented in 2015.

As battery cells release or store energy, they tend to get hot, so the cooling scheme becomes a crucial part to ensure top performance. The pack used in the FF 91 incorporates the innovative coolant flow for each cell. The company partnered with M&I Materials Ltd.’s MIVOLT for its advanced dielectric coolant material.

Because of the cooling system, Breitfeld said “we can pack the battery cells very densely, which creates the highest energy density.” He says the self-contained and fail-safe battery pack design is also non-flammable.

“Our packaging concept and the cooling concept of the battery will always be an advantage,” said Breitfeld. “The technology is patented, and even the manufacturing is patented. We developed the manufacturing process of laser welding all the cells together, which is quite a tricky thing to do. So we feel that we will keep the advantage.”

Validation of the powertrain advantage and other key vehicle systems was announced in March, with FF completing its second season of winter testing on the FF 91 pre-production EV in conjunction with Bosch. The tests in sub-zero temperatures on snow- and ice-covered surfaces is an important milestone in the overall program as FF engineers ready the car for sale in the first half of 2022.

“Putting the FF 91 in the harsh environment of winter testing conditions is an integral part of FF’s overall testing and validation strategy to ensure best-in-market performance, driver safety, and user confidence,” said Kruse. “The main goal is to make sure that the battery, electric propulsion, chassis, suspension, and other vehicle systems perform under these harsh conditions, while also ensuring a smooth and comfortable and connected experience with the driver in the FF 91.”

 

Leading-edge user experience

From the FF 91’s initial design phase, the company was aiming for a revolutionary user experience, especially for rear-seat passengers. Product developers wanted to create a connection between the home and office for what they call the third Internet living space. One of the key components of the user experience is videoconferencing, which the company believes will provide passengers with a level of “comfort, enjoyment, and resourcefulness” not yet available in a passenger vehicle.

Since the initial CES launch, FF engineers have been busy updating electronic systems for the ultimate user experience. This includes components like microprocessors, screens, and other smart parts of a car that get outdated much faster than traditional car components.

“We had to redefine the technology here, the hardware part, the different microprocessors, different chips,” said Breitfeld. “We replaced some of the screens and the infrastructure in the car. This is where the supply-chain guys [and] engineers worked very hard over the last months.”

Breitfeld claims another advantage in the FF’s own software team, the major portion of which is located in Beijing. The company has been able to keep the team together even in difficult times.

“This is something I’m very grateful for—the many people who sacrificed a lot,” said Breitfeld. “We reduced their salaries to save money and survive, and everyone accepted it and still were working hard for it. We made significant progress on the software side, on the functionality side, which puts us in a position now that we will be able to launch this product within 12 months after the closing of our [SPAC] deal.”

In May, FF announced that the FF 91 will have additional passenger-focused features at launch. Rear seat passengers will be able to lower and raise the 27-in RSD (rear seat display) with simple voice commands to conduct in-vehicle video conferencing while commuting.

The company believes the car’s AI-enhanced voice experience will help create the class-leading connected vehicle experience. It is immersing its first-party voice assistant, the FFAI, deeply into the vehicle OS, enabling it to work continually with as many user touchpoints as possible.

“FF will deliver the latest and most advanced user-focused capabilities in the FF 91,” said Rao. “These voice control and video conferencing upgrades are a crucial part of our third Internet living space experience.”

The rear-seat intelligent Internet system and other smart features of the FF 91 are enabled by continuous high-speed connectivity supported by a super mobile AP with three modems.

While many companies claim great connectivity, in reality, Breitfeld said many solutions are not that great. He added that most [competitors] have a single SIM card and single provider, so network coverage is only as consistent as that one provider.

“We create what we call a gateway module, which connects the car to the Internet with three modems, and we can run three different providers at the same time,” Breitfeld elaborated. “The software stack on it can switch very fast between the different providers and sometimes even bundle up the signal, blend them over a combined signal, which gives you some time even a little bit more bandwidth. The main thing is that you will have stable and continuous network coverage at all times.”

He believes that this better connectivity solution could provide a different competitive advantage in the future because “once the car will drive autonomously, there might even be a requirement if you can prove that you have stable network connections with them.”

In preparation for the road to autonomy, the company has announced a few partners.

Velodyne Lidar is the exclusive supplier of LiDAR for the FF 91, its solid-state Velarray H800 sensor helping to deliver a suite of highway, urban, and parking autonomy features. A compact, embeddable form factor allows for the sensor to be located behind the vehicle’s windshield for streamlined integration.

Advanced computing capabilities on the FF 91 are enabled by Nvidia’s Drive Orin, the next-generation system-on-a-chip (SoC) helping to achieve advanced highway autonomous driving capabilities and advanced parking and summon features when it goes on sale in 2022. Orin contains 21 billion transistors and integrates an Ampere GPU architecture, 12 Cortex-A78 ARM 64CPUs, along with deep learning and computer vision accelerators.

 

Preparing for launch

In preparation for the FF 91’s market launch in 2022, in May the company opened its FF Futurist Experience in New York, giving prospective customers a preview of the FF 91 for the first time. The interactive showcase provides a glimpse into FF’s innovative technology; the FF 91’s design, comfort, and performance capabilities; and FF’s core values and brand story.

“The New York City area is an important market not only for EVs but also for luxury vehicles in general, so we’re delighted to be able to showcase our vehicles there in this new interactive experience,” said Breitfeld.

The experience will also help the company prep for what’s to come. It plans to leverage the VPA underpinning the E/F-segment FF 91 for the D/E-segment FF 81 premium mass-market EV in 2023 and the C/D-segment FF 71 mass-market EV in 2024. There are also plans for a VPA-based SLMD (smart last-mile delivery) vehicle in late 2023.

Customers can reserve an FF 91 now at https://www.ff.com/us/reserve.