Jia Yueting's answer: Because of its birth, the century-old traditional automobile industry is about to be subverted

Regarding LeTV Auto, many people think that it is a beautiful story told by Jia Yueting, but very few people are fortunate enough to have witnessed this super car.

On January 3, 2017, Pacific Time, on the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Faraday Future (FF), an innovative company from California, officially launched its first mass-produced model, the FF 91, in Las Vegas.

This is also the first Internet ecological electric car released by Faraday Future, which is invested by LeEco founder Jia Yueting. The birth of FF 91 has extraordinary significance for both LeEco, which is a high-profile car manufacturer, and the long-outdated automobile industry.

FF91’s mission

At present, cars are regarded by many people as the hardware products closest to robots created by contemporary technology. Although there are many car brands in the world, there has never been a revolutionary product like the iPhone, including Tesla. Many people even pin their hopes on Apple to subvert the automotive industry.

But Apple also recently said, "We won't build physical cars anymore, let's just make software."

Jia Yueting, who is often portrayed as a disruptor, believes that "three years ago, several industry leaders from the Internet, IT, electric systems, and automobile fields founded FF with a dream of blue skies and the dream of reshaping the century-old automobile industry. Our mission is not just to build an electric car, but to create a global shared Internet transportation ecosystem. Today, FF has shown the world its first disruptive mass-produced car. This is a milestone in the automotive industry's transition from the gasoline era to the electric era to the Internet ecosystem electric era."

The mass production of FF 91 heralds the birth of a new type of intelligent transportation. It is a "new species" that emerged a hundred years after the birth and development of the automobile industry. It breaks away from the previous functional classification of sedans, sports cars, MPVs, SUVs, etc. in the automobile industry. It has power performance that exceeds that of supercars, handling that is better than small and medium-sized sedans, comfort that exceeds that of luxury MPVs, and passability that is comparable to that of luxury SUVs. More importantly, it injects the latest electric technology, Internet technology, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, etc. into automobiles, creating a new type of transportation and smart terminal. From then on, a new era of Internet ecological automobiles has begun.

Faraday Future was founded in April 2014 and is headquartered in California, USA. It is a global Internet ecological electric vehicle company. FF and LeTV are strategic partners. The two parties work closely in R&D, technology, hardware, software, components, engineering, cloud services, and Internet of Vehicles.

In December 2015, FF announced the construction of a factory in North Las Vegas, Nevada, with a total investment of US$1 billion. Currently, the world's first smart Internet ecological super factory has successfully completed the first phase of construction and will start the second phase of construction in the first quarter of 2017.

In early 2016, LeEco announced a strategic partnership with FF. FF made its global debut at CES 2016, and the FF ZERO1 electric supercar concept car won multiple CES awards. In the middle of the year, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) officially approved FF's application for an autonomous driving test license, and the first Beta prototype began road testing.

According to Nick Sampson, senior vice president of R&D and engineering, FF currently has 1,400 employees worldwide, from 36 countries around the world, of which 1,000 are in Southern California. In just over two years, FF has applied for 1,940 patents, of which 233 have been approved.

The launch of this first mass-produced car is undoubtedly a crucial milestone in FF's development.

Nick Sampson elaborated on FF’s beliefs and mission. FF aims to completely break boundaries and innovate to reconstruct the future: reconstruct the century-old automobile industry through the perfect integration of technology, design, the Internet and automobiles; and redefine future transportation with the research and development ideas of electrification, intelligence, the Internet and sharing.

How FF91 beats Tesla

At the launch of FF 91, the audience witnessed a "peak battle" of the acceleration performance of the world's top luxury cars.

Videos of FF 91 racing against several top sports cars have been circulated on the Internet earlier. FF 91 crossed the finish line first with an absolute lead over other models, but the specific acceleration time of FF 91 from 0 to 60 mph is still unknown, which has also caused many car fans to speculate.

At the launch event, FF 91 competed with Bentley Bentayga, Ferrari 488 GTB, Tesla Model X P100D, and Tesla Model S P100D, which are currently the most powerful models in the world. FF 91 finally broke the world record with a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 2.39 seconds, becoming the new "king" of 0-60 mph acceleration and the fastest electric car in the world.

As for the issue of electric vehicle endurance, which is of most concern to the outside world, FF has also provided its own solution.

The FF 91 battery pack has a capacity of 130kWh, with the largest single cell energy and the highest battery pack cell density, which greatly increases the driving range of electric vehicles. According to the US EPA standard, the driving range on a single charge is over 378 miles, and if it follows the European NEDC standard, the driving range is over 700 kilometers, reaching or exceeding the driving range of most traditional internal combustion vehicles with a full tank of fuel.

Through the high-power DC charging system, FF 91 can achieve a range of 500 miles in one hour. In addition to the DC power system, users can use household 240V AC to complete charging, which can fully charge the vehicle from 50% in 4.5 hours.

At the same time, FF 91 also has artificial intelligence, unmanned driving and other technologies, such as facial recognition, personalized settings, automatic parking and other functions.

In terms of appearance, FF 91 is also very Internet-featured, and it looks more like a concept car.

FF 91 has a length, width and height of 5,250 x 2,283 x 1,598 mm, and a wheelbase of 3,200 mm. The vehicle uses a large number of aerodynamic design elements, with a drag coefficient of only 0.25. The rounded front and angular rear design give the vehicle excellent dynamic performance. The use of a large number of lightweight aluminum alloy body materials makes the vehicle lighter and stronger.

You are most concerned about the price

At the FF 91 global launch ceremony, Nick Sampson, FF Vice President of R&D and Engineering, announced that the FF 91 reservation and pre-order are officially open, and the first batch of FF 91 will be delivered to car owners in 2018. However, the specific price was not announced.

The "Blind Purchase Plan" has been officially launched on the FF official website. Users can complete the registration on the FF official website, log in their personal information, and immediately reserve their own FF 91. After a successful reservation, the user will immediately have a global exclusive FFID, get real-time information on FF's latest products and activities, and have the right to participate in FF's online and offline sales activities, while enjoying personalized customization services.

The history of human technological development is the history of the continuous emergence of "new species", and the birth of each new species means a great change in human life and the decline and extinction of related old forces and old species. Generators, cars, computers, the Internet, mobile phones, smartphones and other technological products that we are now familiar with were once new species.

Since Karl Benz invented the automobile as a means of transportation in 1886 by combining the internal combustion engine, gasoline and wheels, the automobile industry has been developing on the original path for 130 years. It quickly replaced the horse-drawn carriage and brought convenience to human transportation and travel. However, people are also increasingly aware that due to the consumption of petroleum fuel, traditional cars bear the original sin of air pollution. Due to the business model that relies solely on sales growth, traditional cars have also caused increasingly serious traffic congestion and inefficiency in cities.

FF's goal is to break this deadlock between humans and the environment. As a new species, FF 91 integrates six major fields, including electricity, automobiles, computers, artificial intelligence, smart hardware, and the Internet, eliminating the boundaries between all traditional models. Its birth marks the beginning of the Internet ecological automobile era.

"The road to subversion is bound to be full of thorns, but we believe that it is difficult to achieve greatness in a smooth career. The greater the hardship, the better the tempering. I am willing to devote my entire life to my dream, Dream On and All In!" Jia Yueting said at the press conference.

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.