Inside Faraday Future: An electric car company struggling to survive!

Editor's note: This article is a translation, written by Justin T. Westbrook. Pictures and texts are from jalopnik.com, this article has been compiled and deleted appropriately

When I was invited to the headquarters of Faraday Future (FF) in California, I remembered a joke I had heard: The factory is adjacent to an animal cemetery. This coincides with the feeling of this company: they have the best car-making technology, but their beloved projects (like pets) are dying.

It turns out that (FF’s headquarters is near the pet cemetery) this thing is true.

Five Years of Struggle

As an entrepreneur in the automotive field, FF was founded in 2015 and promised to build a factory worth tens of billions of dollars, launch electric super cars, and develop full-scale electric vehicles. Autonomous driving technology. Its FF91 is a purely electric, semi-autonomous large-scale high-end car positioned as a crossover, but its production date has been repeatedly postponed since its debut.

In the past few years, the company has relied mainly on the bragging rights and huge investment of funds from its founder, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting. Jia Yueting, also known as "YT".

But starting in 2016, the company began to suffer a series of unexpected setbacks: shortage of funds, large-scale layoffs, cancellation of tens of billions of factory plans, rumors of bankruptcy... and investigations from the Chinese government also Jia Yueting was unable to return to his homeland.

Jia resigned as CEO of FF in September 2019, and went to deal with personal bankruptcy matters in October. The CEO position was replaced by Carsten Breitfeld (Chinese name is Breitfeld), who comes from Byton Motors. He was one of the co-founders of Byton. After the Chinese government intervened (Editor's note: This should refer to the Jiangsu and Nanjing municipal governments' strengthening cooperation with Byton) and disrupted the company's management, Breitfeld chose to leave Byton and join FF.

FF employees

The person I most want to meet at FF is FF CEO Carsten Breitfeld. He was also a BMW executive and was responsible for BMW's i series electric vehicles. Interestingly, Breitfeld is not even the first executive from the BMW i series. Before him, another person from BMW on the FF executive team was Richard Kim (now resigned), the designer of the BMW i3 and i8. .

FF’s headquarters, a very tall building, was sold to a real estate company in 2019 and then rented back by FF. This move solved part of FF’s financial problems. But for those who work here, work here seems to be a torture right now. Everyone looks forward to the day when the car they build starts selling, gets things back on track, and becomes financially secure, especially the engineers and designers who worked on the car. However, there are not many left among the first group of people who participated in the design and development of FF91.

A very clear fact is that FF has burned too much money, and many people have come and gone. There are many people in different positions, all of whom have special skills and the confidence to do their jobs well. But all of this was messed up by the man standing at the top of the pyramid.

What are they doing?

The person I was talking to was Ron Polonski, the head of design at FF. What I got from the chat was that the company’s product design focus is still on how to push and break through the boundaries of existing models. Make bold innovations.

Ron Polonski used to work at Tesla until the launch of Model 3, and he left Tesla. He believes that Tesla has deteriorated as a company and that the company's goals have begun to pursue growing sales rather than creating an "exciting future."

Now Ron Polonski’s main job at FF is to design the follow-up model after FF91, a smaller and lower-priced pure electric crossover model-FF81. This car plans to invest heavily Large-scale mass production. I saw the design drawing of this car at FF headquarters (but was not allowed to be made public). It looks like a smaller version of FF91. Ron Polonski inherited the design elements of FF91 in the exterior design of this car, but in the car Revolutionary innovations have been made in human-computer interaction.

Next, FF will have another car, the FF71, which will go further in terms of interior innovation.

“The design we made on FF71 will set us apart from other companies. It does look very interesting.” Ron Polonski said. However, he did not reveal anything substantive.

Within FF, employees from different teams are encouraged to participate in the FF91 experience. Anyone can comment on any design details of the new car, including the final sales experience. Ron Polonski said the purpose of this is to avoid FF91 making mistakes. For example, because the FF91 has a full glass roof, you have to ensure that you can see each screen clearly even when exposed to direct sunlight. Another example is to design enough cup holders...

At the same time as the interview, an FF91 was stopped due to some design problems.

“Honestly, it’s good for us to stop. It allows us to continue to delve into every small component and look at every small decision we make. This is good for us. Say it’s a cost saving.” Ron Polonski said: "When Tesla pursues development speed, it loses something. We used to be the same way. But now we are back on track, we have time to do testing, and we will have a better product. People You can point your finger and say 'They're done' or whatever, but here, all our waiting and hard work will make us stronger."

Ron Polonski said he is not worried about competition from traditional car manufacturers. “When children grow up, they will not choose the traditional car brands that have been around them since childhood. The world has changed. For young people, (choosing freshness) is an instinctive reaction. "

FF91 is a good car

Is FF91's rival Tesla's Model? X, and other luxury models in its class. As early as the end of 2018, FF91 announced five versions, including two models with 716 horsepower (dual motors) and three models with 1,074 horsepower (dual motors or three motors), all of which are all-wheel drive.

This prototype, which is about to be put into production, has many design elements from concept cars. (Telling a few interesting details) Using a developed APP on your mobile phone, you can remotely open the FF91's doors or rear trunk by voice control. At the same time, the lights of this car can be customized into special indication signals, which can cooperate with the semi-autonomous driving system of the car, or play some tricks, such as when picking up people on a crowded commuting road, special lights flash to tell the other person that you are there. location to help the other party find you quickly in crowded traffic.

FF91 is large in size and has a spacious interior. Sitting in the front row, you are faced with three screens. The screen in front of the driver displays vehicle information, including speed, mileage, etc., the middle screen controls vehicle functions, and the screen in front of the co-pilot is responsible for entertainment. These screens and the technology behind them can support subsequent upgrades, and fully autonomous driving technology can also be upgraded online in the future.

But for FF91, the real highlight is in the back row. This car is supposed to be customized specifically for the Chinese market, where luxury car owners prefer to sit in the back. The initial version of FF91 is a four-seater, with only two seats in the rear that can be folded down. After mass production, a five-seater version will be launched later. The four-seat version is very comfortable and luxurious. The rear row can be folded almost completely flat, and the leg support is also very good. At the same time, a 27-inch large screen can be lowered from the roof, and passengers can enjoy entertainment programs in a very comfortable position. The selection and playback of entertainment programs can be completed through the mobile APP. At the same time, you can also control it through the mobile phone and browse the web on this 27-inch screen. Compared with browsing the web on a mobile phone, it is really too big!

From a driving perspective, this FF91 is quite satisfactory. At least it makes people feel that although the company has experienced many financial crises, FF has still focused on building cars. The car itself is proof that this company is not the joke we thought it was.

(FF employees told me) FF91 has been close to mass production a year and a half ago, but it has been delayed for various reasons. But they are confident that it will be officially put into production before September this year.

However, FF has said since 2017 that it will mass-produce FF91 in the second year, and has also said that it will change the way of mobility in the future. To complete this, it may require hundreds of millions of dollars of additional investment. .

But now, the U.S. Department of Justice has intervened, pointing out that founder Jia Yueting committed "dishonest behavior" in his personal bankruptcy and reorganization (Editor's note, in order to solve his personal domestic debt problem, Jia Yueting took the initiative in the United States in October last year Applying for personal bankruptcy and reorganization), the subsequent blow is that unless Jia Yueting leaves FF, or his bankruptcy reorganization case is concluded, the company may not attract any new investment.

But once new investment comes in, the FF team is confident of returning to the track.

Copyright statement: This article is an exclusive original manuscript of Xianwaibang. Please do not reprint without authorization

(Some pictures are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact Xianwaibang)

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.