Faraday Future revealed its FFZERO1 Concept in Las Vegas on Monday night. It is a striking artifact that continues to keep the company’s product plans mysterious. This “car of concepts,” as Head of Design Richard Kim called it, is an extreme expression containing select elements that foreshadow the company’s production vehicles.
We now know that Faraday Future (they like to be called FF) can design a theoretical 200+ mph, 1,000 horsepower, single-seat hypercar. Even in a world full of extreme cars, this one looks futuristic. But this is not an attempt to compete with Bugatti, Koenigsegg, or Ascari. It’s an extreme test-bed, right down to the drag reducing, heat-dissipating pair of see-through “aero-tunnels” channeling air directly through the vehicle.
Aero-tunnels may not be a practical feature for production cars, but the main character line running around the circumference of the FFZERO1 apparently is. FF calls it the “UFO” line, and it’s intended to be a subtle signature design theme shared across their future product range. If executed properly, it may act like BMW’s kidney grill or Nissan’s new floating roof. The UFO moniker is intended to be memorable while distancing the company and their cars from the industry. In FF speak: they are not of this world.
One of the company’s core philosophies is designing the car from the inside out. Toward that end, the drive-by-wire asymmetric instrument panel in the FFZERO1 is a preview of what’s to come. A focal point of the instrumentation is the smartphone dock located in the hub of the steering wheel. The intent is to integrate the phone with the car and make the user experience more familiar. Practical safety considerations may intervene in the phone’s placement, but this element should reach production in some form.
Another transferable element of the concept may be its platform. Faraday Future has designed what it terms its Variable Platform Architecture (VPA). FF plans to be a multi-vehicle, single-platform company. The creation of a single platform that can host numerous vehicles is, of course, not new. What may be new is the degree of flexibility claimed in this platform, ranging from the ability to host everything from the FFZERO1 to a luxury sedan or pickup — and everything between.
Faraday Future has been hailed as a Tesla rival, and there are undeniable similarities. Both are based in California and Faraday is led by a clique of Tesla alums. Both companies share an all-electric vision with sights set squarely on autonomous mobility. Each organization is stridently anti-auto establishment in their approach and language. They even share a naming philosophy, seeking to wrap themselves in the names of exotic 19th century inventors.
Aside from Tesla’s obvious head start, a paramount dissimilarity between the companies is Faraday’s embrace of on-demand transportation. Tesla’s direct sales model is an evolution of incumbent dealer distribution networks. Faraday, on the other hand, is targeting a revolution in the ownership user experience. It’s not yet clear how they plan to manage that revolution, but we know it’s central to Faraday Future’s plans. We know more today than we did yesterday about what FF will do, but the company’s future remains opaque.
The FFZERO1 concept reflects the company’s early stage of development and leaves more questions than answers. Yet, the company has racked up tremendous progress and claims to have met every major engineering milestone to date. Continuing to do that will be a significant challenge, as their stated goal is to offer their first production cars in “about 2017.” If nothing else, it will be fascinating to witness the development of this well-resourced newcomer.
That looks like a nice competitor to the Vector WX8 and Barabus TKR.
Was wondering what Kylo Ren drove when he was sucking folks thoughts out of their brains.
Kylo Ren is a crybaby.
I’m 100% sure his interior is heavily damaged because every time he gets angry he punches stuff – like the Nav screen and the steering wheel.
what a punk.
A Disney Princess.
He might have been a crybaby, but he was a much better crybaby than Anakin Skywalker.
Well, the hole he punched between the bedroom and his workshop in his ex-girlfriend’s Greenpoint apartment was actually a pretty inspired choice.
This company is a complete joke. It wont be around long ennough to ever release a production car
What is the over/under on when this vaporware disappears?
How did Telsa start? They took a current car (Elise) and put an electric drive system into it. This allowed them time to learn enough to make an actual, normal car you could buy at a price that many people (not regular working people, but CEO types) could afford. But this FF thing is pretty much the complete opposite of that. Thus I’m going to assume opposite results.
Poorly cut plexiglas must be the new carbon fiber.
At least if it snaps off you could replace it at any True Value.
If it’s a display than you wont be replacing it cheap
Holly, Kazooks Robin! I want to drive the new Batmobile first!
It’s time to play! –
Chinese Vaporware?
-or-
Cadillac Elmiraj?
One day a real journalist will write an article comparing concept cars and show cars and what actually gets into production (the Volt would be a funny place to start). Frankly any old thing inspired by the batmobile and covered with carbon fibre is designed as clickbait for teenagers.
Great idea Greg! Sounds like a real project – I hope one of TTAC’s people takes it on.
Well, that looks thoroughly hideous.
“It’s an extreme test-bed, right down to the drag reducing, heat-dissipating pair of see-through “aero-tunnels” channeling air directly through the vehicle.”
Cue the B&B complaining that ventipanes were better anyway…
Ventipanes were better.
Are there optional fender skirts and a see-through landau?
You’re nothing without fender skirts.
It would look fantastic with a full skirt. Like it was floating.
It has the same vibe as the GM Firebird I. Here’s hoping that Faraday is a success and that robust competition among manufacturers eventually leads to some affordable and even fun EVs.
Such a great idea!
You know – instead of building a spacious 4-door EV for under $50,000.
What a joke – even the EV community shredded this concept when it came out:
http://insideevs.com/faraday-future-concept-ev-reveal/
Making an electric supercar is much easier than building an affordable, profitable 4- or 5-seater.
GM, Nissan, and Tesla have the best shot at the latter, and Tesla’s survival depends on it. “FF” isn’t even close.
State fiscal grant? Yeah, Nevada got schlonged.
There goes another $400,000,000 of Nevada taxpayer dollars so rich folks can have 200mph cars.
Faraday was neither “inventor” nor “exotic” in any sense other that was not being strong in mathematics. He is a famous physicist who helped to establish foundations of electromagnetic interactions which were formalized into electromagnetic field theory which in turn spawned special relativity theory and QED, which finally resulted in Standard Model – the most comprehensive theory of the Universe verified with astounding precision. So I would not compare him with Tesla.
Yeah, it’s a stretch but your new avatar reminds me of this:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tQOqwZgi_iY/hqdefault.jpg
It is much simpler than that.
Great, another hypercar engineered by throwing tons of money at it without any real interesting bits.
They want to do something? Make a $30K electric car. Do something at a cost. A monkey can put together a hypercar if cost is no object (and many monkeys have given the various POSes out there).
And I thought all the Porsche “we’re gonna make an electric car that goes 300 miles and changes in ten minutes by 2020” rhetoric was bad enough. This makes Elio look like a sure bet. I’d give this as much chance of happening as that 3d printed supercar from last year that no one will ever see again.
What a nice coffee table! And I’m remodeling! Can I get it in light blue to match my oriental?
Who keeps funding these supercar companies? They never produce anything, yet new ones are burning through investor cash every year.
Send a fraction of that my way. I’ll make us some money.
China in this case. Although “China” and “funding” seems like an oxymoron this week.
Oldsmobile called: they want their Aerotech shell back.
The Aerotech actually ran under it’s own power. And looked better.
Yesterday USA Today ran a picture of the car with a very attractive model standing in front of it. I prefer that photo. Sorry honey…
That could only be driven in Kansas.