This is the Tesla-worrying FF91 by Faraday Future

The back seat of a Faraday Future FF91, as it drives itself around a car park. There are several places I expected to be today, but this was not one of them. I expected to sit in a plush executive office, to talk to people, to walk around a facility, to see desks and maybe a show car. But this is better – a practical demonstration that Faraday Future could be more than smoke and mirrors.

Photos: Webb Bland 

This feature was originally published in issue 293 of Top Gear magazine

This is why we’ve been let in, of course. Faraday Future seemingly came from nowhere, arrived at the CES show in Las Vegas in January, and claimed that next year it would put into production an all-electric, self-driving super-luxury minivan that will out-accelerate any supercar. It’s a tech start-up as much as a car company, and these sounded like suitably brash claims. We got in touch, they invited us over and now we’re here.

This building, trapped in a network of interstates and industrial estates between LA and Long Beach, used to be the headquarters of Nissan North America. “When we first bought it in September 2014, about ten of us moved in,” senior VP of R&D and engineering, Nick Sampson, tells me. “I lose count because it changes so quickly, but now we’re about 1,200 here, plus about 200 spread between the Bay area of San Francisco, plus Beijing and Shanghai.”

From ten to 1,400 in two-and-a-half years? That’s growth – and China is the key. Faraday is an American company, but is funded by Jia Yueting, a Chinese entrepreneur who made his money through online content, buying the rights to TV shows, sports, films etc and broadcasting them. “His vision,” Sampson says, “was: ‘If I can have my content on my phone and my TV, why can’t I have it in my car?’ So he sees mobility as an extension of where he can put it.”

Sampson is ex-Lotus, ex-Tesla; Faraday Future itself sprang to life through the LinkedIn website. “There was another ex-Lotus guy, Tony Nie, who had helped set up Lotus Engineering in China. And in April 2014, through his connections we met up with YT [Yueting]. We came to an aligned view and he volunteered to help FF get going. He’s the main financial backer, but we have a diverse range of others.”

Exactly which others, or how much money is involved, Sampson, FF’s figurehead, won’t say. There have reportedly been problems with the Nevada factory, where building work was suspended last November, and more recently the initial planned facility has been downsized. At least two suppliers are believed to have sued Faraday for non-payment, and several executives have left. Yueting has admitted to funding issues. 

But no new start-up is without issues. I’m not saying that to defend FF, merely to point out that glitches will happen when you’re not only trying to design and engineer a new car, but also set up the manufacturing, marketing, supply chain, sales and servicing network – everything, in other words. They must be haemorrhaging cash right now.

Statistically, the odds aren’t great for FF, but it isn’t a small British sports-car company trying to get off the ground, it’s something much more far-sighted. FF has a chance because, oddly, people don’t seem to trust traditional car companies to do electric cars. BMW’s i cars are utterly brilliant, but sales are slow. The Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf are good, too. They’re not shifting either. Tesla? Some 400,000 advance orders for the Model 3.

What is shifting is the sphere of influence. It’s not Detroit that’s shaping America’s motoring future, but LA. “Part of the reason we chose to set up here”, Sampson says, “was not only does the West Coast have the tech, people and mindsets, but from a wider perspective there’s a brand imaging that it gives us.” He continues, “Plus it’s a lot easier being the fast follower than the leader. Tesla weren’t the first, but they were the one that broke the mould.”

For Faraday the opportunity is now – strike while the iron is hot. Pete Savagian, VP of propulsion engineering chips in: “To begin a car company fast is expensive and daunting, but it’s easier than doing it slowly – you’d be vulnerable for a much longer time.” Savagian is another auto industry heavy-hitter, working at GM for two decades, including on the original EV1.

The interesting thing about Faraday is that I’m meeting the engineers, the developers. And they’re believable, pragmatic people. I’d expected white teeth, deep tans, perfect hair, 16th floor boardrooms, chrome and leather. Sampson’s office, where we chat, some of us perched on the shelf unit that contains Lotus models and car magazines, is on the ground floor behind reception. It’s a bit dusty in places. The furniture doesn’t match. In reception there’s a vast TV, but it’s sat on the floor next to a lonely pot plant. The vibe is high-tech, but slightly disorganised. Like no one’s had time to give the place much love yet.

We’re off on a tour. They gutted the offices when they moved in, pulling down all the partitions and ceilings, opening the whole building up. It’s exactly like you expect a West Coast tech start-up to be. I don’t spot anyone sitting on an up-turned crate, but I’m sure someone somewhere is. Desks and monitors, lots of people crammed in together, a bit rough and ready but a good buzz about the place. Signs dangle from ceilings. We stop at Hong Bae’s desk, because Knight Rider’s KITT has been strung up here. He’s head of ADAS – autonomous driving. The note below reads “How hard can it be?”

I can see why Sampson loses track of head count, why there’s staff turnover. But I’m almost encouraged by this. I’d be wary if this was too well presented, but nothing looks staged. We go downstairs – no grand stairway this, more like a fire escape. This is where actual things are taking shape. Past the giant 3D-printing machines and, wow, suddenly there’s half a dozen FF91s in service bays. Puts paid to the rumour that they’d only built the show car.

In the design studio where most of these pics were taken, there’s a car with an interior. We weren’t allowed to shoot it because they don’t want it seen yet. But it is beautiful. Really, genuinely stunning. There’s a huge, floating, movable touchpad interface up front, and in the back, behind the rear-hinged doors, a drop-down screen and a pair of “zero gravity” chairs that recline to 60 degrees and make the best efforts of Bentley and Maybach look pretty dismal.

The integration of LCD screens into the materials so they blend seamlessly in and don’t dominate is elegantly done. For me, the rear cabin environment, if not the cabin full stop, is Faraday’s USP. It might look like a push-me, pull-you minivan, but it’s first class travel all the way.

I have a whirl with the virtual reality rig they use to see inside components, check clearances, get a feel for the interior ambience. I attempt to walk around the virtual car and crash into a pot plant. We move on. I learn that they currently have 24 cars out testing, some hot weather, some cold weather, some no further away than the car park outside. Would I like to have a ride? I would.

The lidar system is operational (laser light detection and ranging – it’s part of the FF91’s sensory network of 13 long- and short-range radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and 10 cameras), and the car is finding itself a car parking space. The suspension is a bit clunky but the drivetrain is silken as it shifts from forward to reverse. There’s a constant whirr of fans from the jumble of electronic boxes in the boot, while down by my ankles a screen full of dots is assembling a digital view of the area. It’s a prototype, but the car is getting itself about, negotiating other traffic, employee cars and finally reversing into a space ahead of the original ADAS prototype – a BMW X5 done up with enough cabling and add-ons to double as Marty McFly’s DeLorean. 

There’s nothing revolutionary here, but the engineering feels rigorous. It looks odd, this MPV reimagined by Hot Wheels, a car in search of a niche, but you can’t accuse it of looking like the product of any existing car company. I was quite taken by it, although reckon it’ll cost somewhere around £150k.

I don’t want to be gullible, but neither do I want to point, laugh and say no chance. What do I think might happen? Well, Jia Yueting has also set up another car company, LeECO, in China. They’ve shown a concept, the LeSEE. Could Faraday Future be a stalking horse? Sampson admitted the two were working together. Maybe FF will develop the IP in the US, then move production to China. That would wind up the new White House administration a treat.

So maybe Faraday exists to build premium cars in the US – the Audi or Bentley to LeECO’s Volkswagen. But first they need to get the car to market, and there are plenty of stumbling blocks between now and then.