Faraday Future, the struggling electric vehicle maker that once touted itself as the next Tesla, announced a partnership Wednesday with South Korean automaker Myoung Shin that the companies hope will lead to the launch of the FF81 model in 2024.
The FF81 is intended to be more of a mass-market EV than Faraday’s FF91 model. Production of the FF91 is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2022.
Founded in 2014 in Carson, California, revealed the FF91 at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, but has not yet produced it. At that event, Faraday executives promised many bells and whistles in the car, including a range of automated driver assist features, including a lidar sensor that would emerge from the hood when needed.
That element has since been dropped, but Faraday plans to launch the FF91 with Velodyne’s Velarray H800 solid state lidar system.
Faraday also says it is an internet and technology company that offers artificial intelligence products.
Little more than a year ago the company announced its shares would trade on the Nasdaq exchange after a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) merger with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. that valued the company at $3.4 billion.
The stock began trading last July under the ticker symbol FFIE, but shares have lost more than 60% of their value and closed Wednesday at $4.39.
Last October, investment firm and short-seller J Capital Research released a report that predicted Faraday will never deliver an EV.
According to a press release outlining the partnership, the FF81s will be assemble at Myoung Shin’s plant in Gunsan, South Korea. Myoung Shin also will commit to make as many vehicles as Faraday Futures forecasts it can sell. Those forecasts are unclear.
