For those who doubt Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc.’s future, the “Intelligent Electric” company revealed the Faraday Future 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance Wednesday wearing a $309,000 price tag, not including destination charge.
Limited to 300 units worldwide, it can be reserved with a $5,000 deposit. It can be ordered with a mobile system subscription named “FF aiHypercar+” that provides software, internet and customized AI algorithm services. It can be pre-ordered for $100 with your vehicle, and will cost $14,900 annually.
“This milestone event not only marks a new chapter in the development of FF, but also a solid step towards our vision of transforming the century-old automotive industry,” said Xuefeng Chen, Global CEO of Faraday Future. “Faraday Future has faced many obstacles, but as a trailblazer in the intelligent EV industry, Faraday Future has persevered.”
The company promises that the Faraday Future 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance’s resale value will be at least 60% on the MSRP after three years, under what it calls the “Ultimate AI TechLuxury Eternity Plan.” But, the company cryptically adds “this plan will be revisited at the end of 2023.”
Of course, you can always opt for the less expensive $249,000 Faraday Future 2.0 Futurist with a $1,500 deposit or the yet-to-be-priced Faraday Future 2.0 with a $1,000 deposit.
The announcement comes six years after the car was first revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2017. In that time, Nissan launched, sold and discontinued the Nissan Rogue Sport.
So, what do you get?
The financially tenuous EV startup stated the Faraday Future 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance pushes out 1,050 horsepower, an EPA-certified range of 381 miles, travels 0-60 mph in 2.27 seconds, which is faster than you can say the model’s name. We would tell you more about the car, but the meaningless hyperbole used to describe the car’s engineering reeks of smoke and mirrors.
This is not a new car, but “a newly evolved silicon-based new species,” an “All-Ability aiHypercar” that uses a “moat body structure” that creates “a side impact crumple zone,” the latter of which is required by federal law and is common to all cars. The car itself is built using “FF aiHyper 6×4 Architecture 2.0” incorporating the company’s “six technology platforms” that include “FF OpenApp, FF aiOS 2, FF aiHW 2.0, FF Mechanical, FF Cloud and FF AI” that run Faraday Future’s four technology systems: “Magic All-In-One, Hyper Multi-Vectoring, 3rd aiSpace” and FF aiDriving.
Regardless of what they’re talking about, you’ll be happy to know that car is 206.7 inches long riding on a 126-inch wheelbase. It’s 90 inches wide and 63 inches tall. Plan your garage space accordingly.
Show me the money
Money is still an issue for the EV startup.
Through a merger with a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, Faraday Future raised close to $1 billion in the middle of 2021 with plans to begin production. But when the time arrived, the company admitted that its much-touted 14,000 pre-orders were in fact only 401 actual orders.
A year later, production hadn’t started, as the company revealed it needed up to $170 million to do so at the end of 2022. At the time it had a mere $20 million in cash on hand. The business received a $135 million capital infusion in February from ATW Partners and Acuitas Capital and some unnamed investors to jump start the beginning of manufacturing of the FF 91 Futurist. The February round of financing was in addition to $33.4 million raised by Faraday since the middle of last December to fund production costs for the FF 91.
According to a report in Barron’s, Wall Street anticipates revenue of $140 million in 2023, or about 700 units sold. But it remains to be seen if Faraday has a future. Given the hand-to-mouth existence of other EV startups, such as Lordstown Motors, it remains to be seen.
Certainly the announcement did little to help its share price, which fell 6.53% today to 23¢ a share, down more than 97% from its January 2021 all-time high of $18.45 a share.
