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MPV designed by Faraday Future, for joint venture with The9
Last month the troubled electric car hopeful Faraday Future was given (another) new lease on life, via a new joint venture with The9, a Chinese online game company, that will produce a new model for the Chinese market based on Faraday’s nearly mothballed FF91.
It’s now a lot clearer what that vehicle, to be produced as soon as next year, is. It isn’t a version of the FF91 but a van-like MPV—that Faraday Future teased in a photo released yesterday.
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Faraday Future’s design team is creating the new vehicle, according to the California company, which is to be produced in China at up to 300,000 units annually.
Faraday Future FF 91
The vehicle will share its skateboard-layout Variable Platform Architecture with the FF 91. Based on the released teaser photo above, the vehicle is modern and van-like, with a steep rake to the windshield but a flat, extended roofline that should extend enough headroom and interior space to a second and third row (or perhaps more). As with the FF91, the wheels are pushed out to the corners, with very little overhang.
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Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting added to the description, tweeting (via an unverified account): “The V9 concept: a new mobility luxury intelligent space that blends design, AI and seamless cabin connectivity.”
Faraday Future FF 91 first pre-production prototype in Hanford, California factory
The company confirmed to Green Car Reports that there is no plan to offer the V9 in North America. Chinese suppliers and scale are also vastly different, so it may not have a significant impact on the economics of producing the FF91.
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The initial investment from The9 to Faraday Future, of $5 million for the U.S., is primarily for the design operations of the vehicle, according to the company. But additional tranches of funding will arrive provided milestones are met—with the completion of this design and Faraday Future turning over land to be used by the Chinese joint venture.
With the first sign of new vehicle and design work in many months, and the drama of Faraday’s past year of funding woes in the rearview mirror, the company could, potentially, get to why it exists—producing electric cars—by the end of the year.