It has been quiet for a while around the ambitious American Faraday Future, but now a major milestone has been reached: the first production-ready FF 91 has rolled off the production line in California.
We rewind for a moment to January 2017. Then start-up Faraday Future presented its first car, the FF 91. A robust electric car with a futuristic-looking body, with which the Americans wanted to open the attack on Tesla. Even before the unveiling of the FF 91, Faraday Future already showed that it sees Tesla as its main competitor, by (successfully) holding a drag race against a Model S P100D. The technical specifications of the FF 91 did not lie: 1,050 electric horsepower, a sprint from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 2.4 seconds, a battery pack with a capacity of 130 kWh, good for a range of 608 km (NEDC). Please note: we are talking about 2017. However, more than five years passed before the FF 91 finally became reality, because now Faraday Future finally presents the production version.
The past five years have been somewhat difficult for Faraday Future. In Jip-en-Janneketaal, this was due to a lack of money and rumours about where to build the FF 91. The necessary financial resources are now available, partly thanks to a collaboration with automotive giant Geely. So now the FF 91 can finally go into production. That is to say: series production will start in the third quarter of this year. It takes place at the factory in Hanford, California.
Specific new information about the FF 91 is not forthcoming and on the Faraday Future website we still see the same specifications as were communicated in 2017. At least, people are now talking about ‘more than 300 miles of driving range’, or more than 480 km. That is a considerably more conservative estimate than the 608 km that was still expected at the time. Faraday Future is also still tight-lipped about expected prices. From what we have seen of the FF 91 to date, it certainly promises to be a very luxurious EV, which in terms of (power) performance may have Tesla on the grain, but a luxury experience as in a Mercedes-Benz S- want to give class. That approach is also reminiscent of that other ambitious club from the US: Lucid Motors.
We are curious if it will actually happen. Faraday Future indicates that it will now first enter a final test phase with pre-production models and then start series production in the third quarter. Interested parties can pre-register now.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl