Despite a torrid history from day one, Faraday Future isn’t giving up on the electric car market. Although it currently only offers the $249,000 FF 91 luxury living room on wheels, the automaker will reportedly develop a mainstream EV using a newfound infusion of $30 million from an unspecified lender. Hopefully priced more like a Chevrolet Equinox EV and less like a Mercedes-Maybach S680, the so-called Faraday X, or FX, family will make its debut in theoretical form at CES 2025.
The Faraday X Could Be Based On A Chinese Design
Despite being based in Los Angeles, California, much of Faraday Future’s funding comes from China. As a result, it’s possible the $30 million could be used to rationalize an existing Chinese-market EV for American consumption. As we’ve previously reported, Faraday Future hopes to become “the Toyota of AIEVs,” meaning artificial intelligence electric vehicles, with large volumes and pricing that undercuts the Tesla Model 3. The automaker claimed such in a social media post, although how it intends to achieve that goal is unconfirmed.
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Road & Track reports that Faraday will provide a business update for the FX project at CES 2025, potentially including preliminary specs and design renderings. The magazine also says that the company will drive two FX prototypes from Las Vegas to Hanford, California, to provide proof of concept for the inexpensive EV family. We’ve reported that Faraday will market both a smaller but still spacious FX5 crossover and a larger FX6 SUV, both with that aforementioned “mainstream” pricing.
A Measured Approach To Financing
Considering this isn’t the first investment Faraday Future has received, the lender is metering out the money in specific increments, starting with $7.5 million. The remaining cash will arrive in FF’s coffers provided it meets specific requirements with the source of the money. As far as the high-dollar FF 91 is concerned, it’s been on sale for more than a year and has had at least a few consumer deliveries, possibly lending some credence to the company’s ambitions.
The FX family isn’t the only cheap-and-cheerful EV in development by a luxury automaker. Lucid plans to introduce three affordable electric cars, while Rivian will bring out the $45,000 R2 and an unpriced but likely cheaper R3 by the end of the decade. Both California-based companies currently make cars that start at $70,000 or more, and their future products will likely fall in line with the average transaction price of new cars today.
Source:
Road & Track