Electric car company Faraday Future looks on course to launch its first model later this year after it received £1.5 billion worth of investment from a Hong Kong holding company.
The money, supplied by Evergrande Health, adds to the £750 million Faraday Future raised last year by selling off shares. The cash injection means plans to put the FF 91 electric SUV (above), a future rival to the Tesla Model S, into production can go forward. Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting has said this will take place later this year.
The FF 91 is powered by a 130kWh battery and uses Faraday Future's patented Echelon Inverter, which the company claims can transform more energy while using less space than existing inverters.
The car is claimed to be capable of gaining 500 miles worth of charge per hour and comes with a home charger that can fill the battery to 50% in less than 4.5 hours at 240V. Faraday Future predicts the car will offer a range of more than 435 miles on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) test.
Will Faraday Future take Tesla's electric crown?
The FF 91 will first be launched in China and the US, with production for each market handled within each country. Faraday Future is set to open facilities in Hanford, California and Nansha, Guangzhou. The former is an existing plant that is being refurbished. It replaces plans for an all-new site in Nevada, Texas, which took a hit when construction contractor AECOM claimed a payment of $21m (£16m) was late.
Securing investment has turned Faraday Future off the worrying path it was on last year. The firm lost several high-level executives in close succession, casting doubt on its future. Former chief financial officer Stefan Krause resigned in October and chief technology officer Ulrich Kranz’s contract was terminated.
Faraday Future said that these changes had no impact upon its ongoing research and development process. It also showed no signs of slowing demand for its FF 91, which has already received more than 64,000 orders.
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EV evangelism
Didn't De Loren do this trick in Ireland?
On a realistic bias,in the US electricity to the consumer is between US4-7cents per KWh.Australia is 28-30cents.Where do you think these vehicles will be more popular?I still can't come to grips with4.5hours to recharge 50% capacity.What happens,which it does,you are at home charging the car,it's been charging for 10minutes and you get an urgent call to pick up a sick child from school.You've just run the car to 90% empty,so will 10minutes give you enough charge to do the school trip without going flat.
Sorry this is to practical.Look at the horror on the face of a person when their smart phone goes flat let alone the car.
Is this the car that is 2.1
Is this the car that is 2.1 metres wide? If so, its grotesque width is suitable for US freeways and nowhere else.
PS - an internet search shows its width as 2283mm !
Really love it
Design wise its more appealing than Tesla models. I really hope they can get this off the ground without risking quality and reliability. 64,000 orders is interesting and I expect that will grow rapidly to six figures one the factory is actually working. All that remains to be seen is the sticker price. They absolutely MUST undercut Tesla by 15,000 bucks - can they do it?