LeEco's car manufacturing relies on courage alone.

Recently, LeTV’s car manufacturing has made headlines again.

On January 4, Beijing time, on the eve of the opening of the 2017 CES (International Consumer Electronics Show), the American startup electric car company Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF) released its first "mass production car" FF91. To be precise, this car can only be called quasi-mass production at present, because the FF factory is still a large piece of wasteland, and the groundbreaking of the second phase has not yet started. FF and LeTV are inextricably linked. Jia Yueting, the founder of LeTV, chairman and CEO of LeTV Holdings, is an investor in FF. At this press conference, LeTV executives clearly stated that LeTV and FF are strategic partners. The appearance of the "new species" FF91 has made FF's car-making plan no longer remain in the stage of paper talk, and a group of entertainment stars have supported and praised it, which undoubtedly injected "positive energy" into LeTV and FF, which are currently plagued by negative news.

However, neither the launch of "mass-produced cars" nor the popularity of celebrities can mean that LeEco's car-making plan has entered a healthy development track. After all, the automobile manufacturing industry is a real economy, and car-making relies on hard work and down-to-earth, and ultimately needs to be recognized by the market. The celebrity effect alone cannot solve LeEco's problems. For LeEco, the ideal of car-making is very full, but it needs to face many "skinny" realities. The industry has always been questioning its car-making plan.

The first is the issue of car manufacturing qualifications. FF's headquarters and production base are both in the United States, so the production of FF91 does not need to obtain Chinese automobile production qualifications first. However, LeTV needs to face the problem that FF does not need to consider. As the entry threshold of new energy automobile companies and products in my country increases, LeTV, which has no accumulation in the automobile industry, must face the problem of how to obtain production qualifications.

Secondly, car manufacturing requires a lot of investment and cannot be profitable in the short term. Since LeEco admitted that it had a tight capital chain in November last year, the "money-burning" automobile business has been the main source of the crisis. LeEco's investment in the FF project in the United States was even called a "Ponzi scheme" by the Nevada State Treasurer. For FF, the launch of the new car is largely to help the company obtain financing smoothly. The negative news of the previous arrears of project funds and the shutdown of the factory made FF very passive for a time. Some industry insiders believe that the greater significance of FF's release of the new car this time is to serve LeEco's capital chain, boost the confidence of LeEco Holdings and LeTV.com, which are in trouble, and thus support the continued operation of LeEco's car manufacturing project. But for LeEco, to what extent the launch of such a "mass-produced car" can solve its capital shortage problem is still unknown. According to the latest news, LeEco is being sued by a listed company for debt collection, which shows that the capital problem is LeEco's biggest dilemma at the moment. Judging from the development trajectory of other new electric car companies such as Tesla, the investment return cycle is extremely long. Some industry experts said that LeEco should not think about making money within five years.

Third, can the mass production plan be realized? FF stated at the press conference that FF91 is available for pre-order on the official website, with a global limit of 300 vehicles, and will be delivered in 2018. Let's not worry about the fact that a so-called mass-produced car will not be delivered until 2018, which is a discounted practice. The key is whether FF91 can really be delivered to users in 2018, after all, even the factory has not been built yet. Looking further, how can large-scale mass production be achieved? At present, FF cannot give an answer, and LeTV cannot provide a specific timetable. Generally speaking, it takes at least two years from concept car to large-scale mass production. During this period, all links need to be connected to form a complete and mature supply chain, which takes a long time to run in. FF is facing such a situation, how will LeTV Auto, which shares the same fate with it, respond? Time is an unavoidable reality for start-up electric car companies, and there is not much time left for LeTV and FF.

From a technical perspective, FF91 has many challenges to overcome. At the press conference, FF91 made a mistake in the automatic parking session demonstrated by Jia Yueting himself, and the scene was extremely embarrassing. The host's words "It seems a little lazy tonight" obviously could not cover up its own shortcomings. Long driving range and fast charging are the highlights of FF91's external release. According to FF, the FF 91 battery pack has a capacity of 130kWh, which is currently the world's largest automotive battery pack capacity, with the largest single cell energy and the highest battery pack cell density. The fastest charging time is one hour, which can reach 500 miles (about 800 kilometers) of driving range. However, FF did not disclose the materials used in the FF91's battery, and almost said nothing about the battery's heat dissipation. In addition, whether the car meets the relevant safety standards and whether it can pass the safety collision test, these issues need to be solved one by one.

Of course, LeEco and Jia Yueting's dream of making cars is not completely impossible to achieve. After all, Tesla has also experienced twists and turns of life and death. At the beginning of its business, no one believed that it could succeed. Moreover, as an investor in FF, Jia Yueting regards FF as a strategic partner of LeEco. This relationship is different from that of ordinary partners. FF's core technology and business model can be easily replicated in China. At present, LeEco has gathered many experts in the automotive field and has its own base in Moganshan. In this case, once FF succeeds, LeEco's technology will be realized very quickly. However, at this stage, LeEco still needs to go through many hurdles to succeed.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.