The Californian electric car start-up Faraday Future has announced the official start of production for its debut model, the FF 91. Although five years later than originally planned, the first units could soon be rolling out to customers.
Initially, the electric car was supposed to roll off the production line in 2018, but the start-up lacked the necessary capital for a long time and the launch was repeatedly postponed. A few weeks ago, Faraday Future was able to secure the missing capital – an impressive 135 million dollars (126 million euros).
The FF91 is a crossover model more than five metres long with three engines and all-wheel drive. According to EPA standards, it has 1,050 hp and the 130-kWh battery enables a range of 381 miles (about 613 km). However, Faraday Future does not reveal how many examples of the FF 91 will now be produced. Most recently, it was said that only 369 pre-orders for the model were still available.
In addition to the normal FF91 Futurist, there will also be a limited edition of 300 copies of the FF 91 Alliance. This variant impresses with exclusive colours and exclusive car rims.
Although the manufacturer’s own model can be configured and pre-ordered on its website, it has not yet announced the prices for its luxury BEV. However, they should be between 150,000 and 200,000 dollars, or around 138,000 to 184,000 euros.
Faraday wants to start selling the battery-electric car in the Los Angeles metropolitan region this year, followed by the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York metropolitan region. Later, the first sales will be in China, specifically Shanghai and Beijing.
In the announcement, Faraday also gave a glimpse into the future. This is divided into three phases. Phase one, he said, is to deliver all variants of the FF91 on time. “The Phase 2 goal is to introduce future models with an explosive growth in smart device sales, and to create a mobility ecosystem with a rapid increase in eco revenues,” the company wrote. Phase three is expected to see “explosive” growth in sales of “eco revenues”, which include internet apps, software and sharing.
The FF 91, much like the company behind it, has had an eventful history. The prototype of the FF 91 was shown for the first time at CES 2017, but the company had to cut back its ambitious plans only a short time later and was on the brink of failure several times. Accordingly, the production start originally planned for 2018 could not be kept. In September 2019, former BMW manager and Byton boss Carsten Breitfeld took over the CEO post at FF and brought the company out of the headlines to plan the new beginning in the background. But he couldn’t hold on either and had to vacate his post in November last year.
Keyword: Faraday Future starts production of the FF 91