(Original title: Jia Yueting announced the completion of the first FF 91 production car: “It’s crazy, what an exciting day!”)
Jia Yueting is getting closer and closer to his dream! ?
At 8:00 a.m. on February 24, Beijing time, FF (Nasdaq: FFIE) announced the completion of the first FF 91 pre-production car, marking the fourth production milestone of FF – mass production for final engineering The verified and certified FF 91 pre-production car (ie, the quasi-production car) was successfully achieved.
On the same day, Bi Fukang, the global CEO of FF, and Jia Yueting, the founder, drove the first FF 91 mass-produced car out of the factory, and conducted a dynamic acceleration, braking and pile winding test on site.
After experiencing the performance test, Jia Yueting said: “This is crazy, it’s an exciting day. Next, FF’s most important task is to continue to go all out to put FF 91 in the hands of users, and the dream of fighting for it is farther and farther from us. It’s getting closer.” According to FF’s plan, mass production of the FF 91 will begin in the third quarter of 2022.
Three more milestones to unlock
“The completion of the first FF 91 quasi-production car is an exciting moment for all futurists,” said Jia Yueting, “Thank you for your hard work and the global investors who have always supported us. , users and partners, FF has made solid progress in product development and manufacturing.”
According to FF’s previous disclosures, the FF 91 is positioned as a luxury electric vehicle, which was first launched in Las Vegas, USA in January 2017. The car accelerates from 0-60 mph in just 2.39 seconds, can output 1050 horsepower, can travel 300+ miles on a single charge, and has a cruising range of 700 kilometers under NEDC conditions.
On February 24, Jia Yueting, as the first passenger of FF 91’s first quasi-production car, experienced a dynamic acceleration, braking and pile winding test of FF 91 on the spot. During the test, Jia Yueting was full of praise for the acceleration and braking performance of the FF 91. It felt like a rocket launch. The racing car was fast and the braking performance was very sensitive.
Jia Yueting pointed out that the next most important task of FF is to continue to go all out to deliver FF 91 to the global spire users with high quality and high product power on time, so as to achieve the first place in the industry in the global spire market. The completion of the FF 91 pre-production car opens a new chapter for FF and the Hanford plant.
In addition, Matt Tall, FF’s vice president of manufacturing, said the production of the first FF 91 pre-production car at the Hanford plant is an important step toward FF’s third-quarter volume production goal, and one that has seen so far. The closest production version of the FF 91. It is understood that in the next few months, FF will continue to manufacture pre-production vehicles for final engineering verification and certification. These pre-production vehicles will be equipped with the same components as the production vehicles. FF is planning to have Step by step to promote mass production and delivery of FF 91 work.
Back on July 22, 2021, FF officially landed on Nasdaq, raising a total of more than $1 billion. In October of the same year, FF set seven major manufacturing milestones for the mass production of the FF 91, and FF has so far completed four of the seven manufacturing milestones.
Next, FF will complete the remaining three manufacturing milestones as planned, including the start of full mechanical, electrical equipment and plumbing (MEP) to support the fifth milestone of final equipment installation; in the main vehicle manufacturing area , the completion of the sixth milestone of all infrastructure construction and equipment installation; and the planned start of production in the third quarter of 2022, the seventh final milestone of the “SOP”.
Is your dream getting closer?
Although FF successfully landed on Nasdaq in 2021, it does not mean that it will be successful, and Jia Yueting’s road to car building is still uneasy.
In October 2021, J Capital Research, an American investment institution, released a 28-page short-selling report, questioning FF’s R&D investment, production capacity, capital operation performance, and founder Jia Yueting himself. The short report shows that FF previously promised to build 6 factories in five locations in China and the United States, but this plan has not been implemented so far, and FF promised to restart and start production within 7 months The Hanford factory in the United States has nothing substantial progress.
In July last year, FF 91 officially launched the reservation. According to its official website information, the FF91 Futurist Edition Alliance Edition has been booked for 50,000 yuan. Currently, there are 300 units in the world, and they have all been sold out. ; FF 91 futuristic version of the pre-order amount is 20,000 yuan.
In the face of this short-selling report, FF established a special committee composed of independent directors to investigate related allegations. On February 2, the official website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that a special committee composed of the independent board of directors of FF had completed its investigation and submitted an 8-K document to the SEC. It may be misleading that FF has received more than 14,000 pre-orders for the FF 91 vehicle, only a few hundred of those pre-orders have been paid, while others (14,000 in total) have not been paid for.
To this end, FF also carried out a major change in the internal organizational structure, appointing Susan Swenson, an independent member of the current board of directors, as the newly established executive chairman position. As the chief product and user ecosystem officer Jia Yueting will report directly to Susan Swenson, and the annual basic salary is will be cut by 25%. On February 2, 2022, FF also announced that it has reached a cooperation agreement with South Korea’s Mingxin Group. Mingxin Group will produce FF 81 models for Faraday Future, and mass production is expected to start in 2024.
After experiencing the above-mentioned doubts, and with the completion of the first FF 91 quasi-production car today, this is the first time that FF has responded to the voice of doubts in the market through products.
The road to mass production of FF can be described as twists and turns. Can the above-mentioned seven major manufacturing milestones be successfully achieved, and whether Jia Yueting can successfully make a comeback? These issues have always been the focus of the capital market and public opinion.
However, at the test site outside the Hanford factory on February 24, Jia Yueting, who completed the test, said with enthusiasm as before: “This is crazy, it’s an exciting day. FF 91 is a new species, it is The all-rounder is a master. The dream we are striving for is getting closer and closer to us, and the new species FF 91 is about to be born here.”