Faraday Future (FF), the electric car company with big dreams, big talents, has laid the groundwork (literally) for what is, so far, the most pressing argument levelled against it: it has no car on the market.
FF held a grounbreaking ceremony at a site located north of the city of Las Vegas where the future factory will sit. It will cost the still quite young company over 1 billion US dollars to construct, and will allow them to manufacture their cars at an impressive scale within the 3 million square foot facility.
As of now, Faraday Future has not one car on the roads but has, however, showed off a concept vehicle along with the modular underpinnings (it’s Variable Platform Architecture) that would allow a quick entry into different vehicle segments.
Attending the ceremony was Nevada governor Brian Sandoval along with North Las Vegas mayor John Lee. There, FF took the wraps off what was miniature model of what the future factory would look like.
The actual workings of the factory are still quite vague, much like the company itself. From what we know so far, their ambitions include reinventing the way people actually own vehicles, even proposing that the idea of ownership will be obsolete, with favour leaning towards ‘subscribing’ to use a vehicle depending on their needs – comfortable sedan during the week and a more versatile SUV during the weekend, as an example.
The factory itself, FF say, will be a highly connected production facility that uses the most advanced materials and processes to exceed the current environmental and manufacturing standards.
It will also be almost entirely automated, with vehicles manufactured without the usual kinds of labour concerns and dangers involved today. Additionally, the factory itself will be powered by harvesting wind and solar power as well as geothermal energies.
We are moving extremely quickly for a project of this size,” said Dag Reckhorn, VP of Global Manufacturing at Faraday Future. “Our aim is to complete a program that would normally take four years and do it in half the time, while still doing it right.”
“We are thrilled to have chosen Nevada as the home for our first manufacturing facility and are deeply committed to bringing our investment to the state,” said Reckhorn. “We have received tremendous support from local government officials and the community, and look forward to making a significant, positive impact on the local economy.”
