If one company has been keeping us on the edge of our seats this year, it would have to be Faraday Future, the Los Angeles 400 employee undercover electric car company. With a recently announced $1 billion factory plan near Las Vegas, the company has been teasing us with messages of the future of mobility, how everything should be designed and thought out from the user’s point of view. Tonight, the company unveiled its first electric vehicle, EV and glimpse into the future, which will shape the way of things to come for the next few decades. Faraday Future just defined the future of transportation and it is truly exciting.
Faraday Future Unveils its FFZero1
Faraday Future just unveiled its EV prototype at the Las Vegas CES event, it’s safe to say all eyes in the automotive, transportation, electronics and energy world was watching. What the company has teased us for many months amounts to an amazing coup de grace for the competition, still hobbling desperately behind, centuries behind.
The FFZero1 is more of a concept than the car you will most likely be able to buy from the company. However, it signals that Faraday Future excels at a few things. Faraday Future came up with an all-encompassing holistic vision of what the future of transportation will be like and how it will be designed. The key highlights are the variable platform architecture, or VPA, capable of changing its length to accommodate more or fewer batteries. Think of a truly modular platform that can accommodate a sexy race care for the street all the way up to a stretched luxury car. This also spells a car with a battery layout a la carte, meaning, you will be able to choose your battery system and your range.
Faraday Future Unveils its Vision of the Future
Let’s try to make sense of tonight and remove the fluff from the hype. Faraday Future is for real and a serious wake up call for carmakers, including Tesla. Founded on four philosophical pillars, a new electric car, fully-autonomous driving vehicles, long range vehicles, meaning hefty battery packs, the most important part is the people-centric approach. Let’s face it. The people centric approach is what is missing from almost all major carmakers these days. The idea is to design a chassis, a drivetrain and brand it for mass manufacturing. Faraday Future is changing this by introducing the future of mobility, which happens through e-mobility, autonomous electric vehicle, EV that ushers an era of unbridled transportation. But more to the point, Faraday Future tonight unveiled where the future lies with the design of mobility platforms. Faraday Future doesn’t design cars, it designs a platform infrastructure that can accommodate to various customers, regions of the world and swiftly change its layout according to current trends. These guys are so far and beyond traditional carmakers, relegating them to centuries behind.
In the meantime, you can check out its YouTube channel for more information.
Just for Fun!
At the time I was writing this piece before the unveiling, I’m speculating on a few things. The car will be obviously designed with its user in mind, meaning, it will free the driver from the actual driving as much as possible. What this means is that the first Faraday Future car should be more of an evolving platform than a car that will be upgraded every year. The car will be very streamlined for optimal aerodynamic efficiency. The car will be fully linked to the company, smartphones, Internet and will have car-to-car communication technology. I expect a My-Fi system. In-wheel hubs and oh and the cars will be leased…
I can also speculate that the concept will give many carmakers a lot to worry about, especially those who have banked on a different future. And you know who you are…
What I got wrong
There won’t be in-hub motors, but its variable platform will allow for one electric motor to four. What I didn’t anticipate as much is the driving position, well catered to my Italian style of driving, a 45 degree incline with a very ergonomic seat. Where things get a little fuzzy is that the company designed their own helmet which will be hooked to water and oxygen. this leads me to believe we’re going to the moon and beyond…
Faraday Future unveils its FFZero1 with its variable platform.Faraday Future Unveils the Future of Mobility
The take away from tonight is that Faraday Future showed many industry the convergence of transportation. No longer do you make cars. That is so 19th century! Today, you create a mobility platform that is fully connected, modular, quickly design and build a philosophical vision. Faraday Future did all this in 18 months. A world record in this slow paced automotive industry. I also believe Faraday Future will have a strong consulting arm, judging by its Lotus work force.
Tonight we witnessed future in the making with Faraday Future unveiling its Zero01 first electric mobility concept.
