Everything we know about the mysterious car startup that could rival Tesla

Faraday Future
Faraday Future

We are beginning to get a clearer picture of what Faraday Future, the secretive electric car company, has up its sleeve.

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While the startup is still in stealth mode, it has recently started sharing select details about its future plans and has made some pretty interesting revelations. 

Here's a look at everything we now know about the company and its long-term plans.

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It has over 400 employees and has poached talent from BMW, Tesla, and more.

Faraday employees
Facebook/Faraday Future

The company has quietly recruited a team of 400 employees and expects that to number to grow to 500 by the end of the year.

While the company has recruited from a variety of different fields, it has poached quite a few employees from other automakers including Tesla, BMW, Audi, and Ferrari. 

In fact, four of the five people on its leadership team are former Tesla employees.

Nick Sampson, Faraday’s vice president of research and development, is a former Tesla executive and the company’s head of design Richard Kim lead the design of BMW’s i3 and i8 concept.

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It’s investing $1 billion in a factory in the US to build its cars.

Faraday worker
Faraday Future

The company announced in early November that it plans to invest $1 billion in a factory in preparation to begin building its cars by 2017.

It has not yet revealed the exact location of the factory, though it has narrowed the selection down to four states: California, Nevada, Louisiana, or Georgia.

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It will reveal its concept car in January and aims to have cars on the road by 2017.

Faraday CES
Faraday Future

On Thursday, the company announced that it would reveal its concept car at CES, an annual technology conference hosted in Las Vegas.

While Faraday will likely only reveal one car, Sampson said in a recent interview with The Verge that long term, the company plans to roll out a range of different vehicles.

The company plans to have vehicles on the road by in as little as four years, but it is already testing one of its concept cars on the road in California.

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Services will be a big part of the company’s business model.

Faraday Future
Screenshot via Faraday Future

Sampson recently told Bloomberg that one big way Faraday will be different from other automakers is that its business model will depend more on selling services.

“Our business model is not based around moving a car out of the dealer,” Sampson said. “We envision this like a smart phone. The revenue starts once you get the device in the owners’ hands. We’re looking at subscriptions and apps and other opportunities.”

Faraday executives have also said that their car experience will be highly connected and anticipate what the rider wants and needs.

"I want to see a scenario where you sit in traffic for two hours, where you're connected, there's aromatherapy and a really nice chair in an ergonomic position. You can get a ton of work done, watch a movie," Kim said earlier this week during a panel at the LA Auto Show. "I want to touch on the simple things, the small things...as we wait for autonomous driving. What can we do now?"

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It is developing autonomous technology and will experiment with ownership models.

Google driverless car
Like Google, Faraday is also developing self-driving car technology. AP

According to the company’s website, it is also developing “unique ownership models, in-vehicle content and autonomous driving.”

This could include some sort of subscription or ride-sharing service that enables people to request cars via smartphone app.

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It’s backed by a Chinese billionaire who has a passion for electric cars.

Jia Yueting
Getty

While Faraday has not confirmed any official investors, documents filed in California point to a parent company run by Jia Yueting, a Chinese media billionaire.

Yueting, who chairs the Chinese technology company LeTV, told Bloomberg last year that he aspired to build electric cars for the Chinese market. 

“This is our dream and passion,” Jia told Bloomberg about his plan to build electric vehicles last year. “Look at China’s skies, all responsible corporate citizens want to do something about it. This is the truth.”

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They use virtual reality to speed up the design process.

virtual reality ff
Faraday Future's lead designer Richard Kim. Faraday Future

Richard Kim, Farday's lead designer, recently told The Verge that the company uses virtual and augmented reality to help speed up the design process.

He claims this enables them to create a car in one-third of the time it takes using traditional design methods.

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It could have a longer range than Tesla.

Tesla Motors Model S base
Tesla Motors Model S base Wikipedia/Oleg Alexandrov

Tesla’s current vehicles all have a range of 240 miles or more, according to EPA ratings. And the company’s upcoming cars are expected to have a similar range.

Faraday, though, is building a premium electric vehicle that features a battery pack that is larger than the battery pack used in any Tesla model, Sampson told the Wall Street Journal.

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