Faraday Future (FF), a new electric vehicle and future mobility startup company, has announced the company will invest $1 billion in a U.S. manufacturing facility as a phase one investment. The company has been considering several locations including California, Georgia, Louisiana and Nevada, for its state-of-the-art facility. The exact site of FF’s first manufacturing facility will be announced in the coming weeks. Nick Sampson, senior vice president of Faraday Future, said:
“We are very excited to make our $1 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing—and this is just phase one. Selecting the right location for the future FF manufacturing facility is critical to our overall goals. Producing our forward-looking and fully-connected electric vehicles not only requires the latest technology, but the right community partner.”
In addition to producing vehicles, the company plans to explore other aspects of the automotive and technology industries, including unique ownership and usage models, in-vehicle content and autonomous driving.
“With energy constraints, urban crowding, and the increasingly intrinsic relationship we have with technology, today’s cars simply do not meet today’s needs,” said Sampson. “Our range of 100% electric and intelligent vehicles will offer seamless connectivity to the outside world.”
This news has set the media world alight with suppositions, rumour and genuine curiosity being directed towards the $1 billion sum. That’s a huge number for a startup to come outright and announce. The most popular theory is that Faraday Future (FF) is in fact funded by Apple, also based in California.
FF has certainly been attracting above its startup weight with the likes of Sampson, who was the former Director of Vehicle and Chassis Engineering for none other than Tesla Motors.
Similarly, FF has welcomed Dag Reckhorn in the position of Vice President of Global Manufacturing who also hails as a former Director of Manufacturing for the Tesla Model S. Likewise, Alan Cherry serves as Vice President of Human Resources and he too comes from Tesla Motors. Wait, there’s more – former Director of Purchasing at Tesla Motors, Tom Wessner, is now FF’s Vice President of Supply Chain.
Despite FF having only ever produced a simple, neat looking website, they have also managed to bag Richard Kim as their Head of Design. Kim was a founding member of BMW i Design and Lead Designer for the i3 and i8 concepts.
That’s quite the stellar line-up for the, “well funded” startup.
Hints toward Apple’s involvement with the company are to be found everywhere for the conspiracy theorist, with the location, money and attitude all being indicators. The emphasis by the company to state future intent toward, “in-vehicle content and autonomous driving,” is perhaps the closest indication although Google could equally be a second candidate for behind the scenes funding.
By placing equal emphasis on automotive and technology disciplines, FF is uniquely positioned to take a user-centric, technology-first approach to vehicle design. The company intends to develop a range of 100% electric vehicles that offer intelligent, seamless connectivity to the outside world. FF seeks to redefine the automotive experience by delivering a range of intelligent, electric vehicles and unique ownership arrangements that will fit the needs of tomorrow’s population.
Source: http://www.faradayfuture.com/
