“The FFZERO1 Concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies informing FF’s forthcoming production vehicles”, says Richard Kim, Faraday Future’s head of design.
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Built on what Faraday Future calls a Variable Platform Architecture, the FFZERO1 includes everything a righteous concept auto should offer: a futuristic design, a bunch of promising gadgets and breathtaking performance. “This is really important in terms of time, cost and efficiency”, said Nick Sampson, Senior Vice President, Faraday Future.
The single seat cockpit FFZERO1, which also has a smartphone integrated into the steering wheel, made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Faraday Future, backed by Chinese Internet TV provider LeTV, has been operating from Los Angeles and its employee base has grown to 550, with many of them former employees at tech giants like Tesla, BMW and Apple. While Tesla’s X and S models look more like an ordinary SUV and sedan respectively, Faraday Future’s FFZero1 is a whole lot more exotic.
The year in concept cars just kicked off with a serious bang. However, this exhibit bears the mark of future production cars from Faraday: the line on the side of the vehicle, dubbed “UFO line” by the designer, will be donned by all future cars from this company. And an aerodynamic tunnel allows air to travel through the vehicle, reducing drag and providing cool air to the batteries and motor surfaces. The company is aiming to launch their first electric vehicle in 2017. Based on those power cells, we can create different models that have a different desired range without having to re-design the entire structure.
Able to accommodate between one and four motors, variously sized battery packs, different wheelbase sizes and more, the architecture can be used for everything from supercars to pick-ups.
Faraday will break ground on that site in the next few weeks; when it is completed, it will be 3 million square feet and house 4,500 workers.
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To do that, Faraday Future will invest $1 billion to build a 900-acre production plant in North Las Vegas, Nevada, just a seven-hour drive from Tesla’s Gigafactory.
