Faraday Future's FF91: A Luxury Disruptor or the Most Expensive Misstep in Automotive History?
Well, well, well, it's with more fanfare than a royal wedding that Faraday Future has finally waved the chequered flag and released the forever-coming FF91. A tale as fraught with more dramas than an episode of Downton Abbey, Faraday Future has battled insolvency, boardroom brawls, and a revolving door of management. But finally, they've done it. They've squeezed out a car and dumped it onto our driveways. The FF91, the futuristic beast that it is, is finally here. Except...it has a slight hitch.
A hitch bigger than when a Sumo wrestler decides he's up for ballet. A problem more significant than trying to fit an entire herd of elephants into the Tardis. The FF91, the car that was supposed to make us all swoon over the future of automobiles, is pricier than an original Van Gogh. Faraday Future has popped on a price tag that will make your heart skip more beats than a drum & bass track: $309,000.
Sound familiar? You might be recalling the story of the Lightyear Zero, another automotive firework that exploded in a fiery fashion. The Lightyear promised us a solar-powered chariot from future for a mere $127,700, then got a bit big for its boots, and demanded a whopping $320,000 (tax included, how generous). The result? As unsurprising as a grey day in England: not a single unit sold and company gone and forgotten.
Seems like Faraday Future didn't pay attention to that bedtime story. I'll give them this, their original target was a "modest" $200,000, so the leap to $309,000 isn't quite as outrageous as Lightyear's antics. But don't be fooled, this price tag is bigger than a great white shark and could sink the entire company.
Faraday Future thinks their creation is on par with the Ferrari SF90, or even superior to the Maybach EQS 680 SUV. And yet, you could buy the Maybach, and have enough spare change to nab a Tesla Model S Plaid, instead of having just the one FF91. It's like choosing between a night in with a bottle of whiskey or a single peanut.
Faraday Future fancies itself as a “disruptor of ultra-luxury cars” but its FF91 is about as luxurious as your top of the range Audi - there’s nothing wrong with Audi, as long as you don’t ask $309,000 for it. There's more disconnect in Faraday Future’s message than in a third-world internet connection.
Don't get me wrong, the FF91 does have a few tricks up its sleeve - a 1,050 hp tri-motor powertrain and a torque to challenge Thor’s hammer, at 1,458 lb-ft. It'll go from 0 to 60 mph faster than you can say, "Oh, bloody hell!" (2.27 seconds, to be exact). And its 381-mile range isn't something to sniff at either. But is all that worth forking out $309,000? I'd say you'd have to be madder than a bag of ferrets.
On a brighter note, the price tag of shock is only for the FF91 Futurist Alliance launch edition. The slightly more sensible FF91 2.0 Futurist version will "only" cost you $249,000. Plus, after 3 years, Faraday Future is willing to give you 60% back if you trade-in for a new model. That's a sweeter deal than being offered a second helping of pudding.
But then comes the punchline. Faraday Future plans to offer various ADAS features via OTA updates. We're talking subscriptions here, folks. Not for something as quaint as a heated seat, oh no. Faraday Future wants you to cough up $14,900 a year for an assisted driving feature. At that price, you could hire someone to park your car and still have change for a cup of tea.
So, has Faraday Future lost the plot, teetering on the edge of a cliff like a confused lemming? Or do they know something we don't, ready to flip the luxury vehicle market on its head? If they can sell 300 units of the Futurist Alliance edition, they might just have the last laugh. But it's easier to find a sober man at a stag do than that. No pressure, Faraday, no pressure at all.
Yours truly,
Captain Electro.
