Faraday Future’s electric car took Tesla Motors head on by unveiling its car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 4, 2016. The FFZERO1 Concept vehicle is a test bed and could potentially give Tesla Motors a run for its money.
The firm highlighted, however, that the modular basis of its design meant it could easily reconfigure the elements to create other types of electric vehicles, even including pickup trucks. The company said it was on course to deliver its first production vehicle in two years’ time.
Research chief Nick Sampson—who formerly worked for Tesla—suggested his firm was able to move quicker than others thanks to its adoption of “variable production architecture”.
“We’re working with the biggest and best battery cell suppliers in the world and working with them to design the architecture and battery packs, which will be done in house, in a way similar to the Tesla model,” Sampson says. “They work with Panasonic, but the packs are all done by Tesla. We are designing our own packs and our own control systems.” Faraday declined to disclose who its cell suppliers are, however.
He explained this meant it would use the same basic underlying structure on all of the company’s vehicles, adapting it to include anywhere from one to four motors, battery packs of various sizes, different types of wheelbases and other optional parts.
“You don’t have to sacrifice anything for being sustainable,” said Richard Kim, head of design for Faraday Future. “This is a 100% sustainable, electric, non-polluting vehicle, and it can be as dynamic as 1,000 horsepower.”
Tesla will be closely watching this company as it embarks on becoming a fierce competitor for them.
If the vehicle didn’t look like a 1950’s batmobile I’d be more interested.