Automotive newcomer, Faraday Future (FF), has introduced its plan to rethink mobility, unveiling the FFZERO1 Concept, which is making its public debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The company’s first ever concept is a high performance electric vehicle built upon FF’s Variable Platform Architecture (VPA), a modular engineering system optimised for electric vehicles, on which all future FF production vehicles will be based.
The VPA is designed to minimise production costs, deliver quality and safety, increase speed to market, and support a range of different vehicle types and sizes.
The high performance FFZERO1 Concept was applied to the VPA in order to maximise the platform’s potential and showcase its flexibility.
It features adaptive personalisation, seamless transfer of custom vehicle configurations, access to live images and real time data visualisation. The smartphone has been directly integrated into the steering column, enabling it to serve as the interface between the vehicle and the driver in – and outside – of the car.
The FFZERO1 Concept could be fully autonomous, meeting its driver at the track and perhaps taking a few perfect laps on its own to compare with, and improve upon, its driver’s performance.
The interior, primarily white with a carbon fibre finish, features a NASA-inspired single-seat configuration, offering a comfortable, weightless body position, says FF, holding the driver at a perfect 45-degree angle, thereby helping to promote circulation.
The propeller-shaped, asymmetric instrument panel is a theme that will be incorporated into the future FF design DNA. It runs seamlessly into a Halo Safety System with integrated head and neck support, oxygen, and water supply fed to the driver through a prototype helmet. The system could also gather biometric data about its driver.
Utilising lightweight materials and composites on the VPA platform, the FF design team experimented with new driver-focused proportions, pushing the canopy forward for a perfectly aerodynamic teardrop profile.
“The FFZERO1 Concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies informing FF’s forthcoming production vehicles,” said Richard Kim, head of design, Faraday Future. “This project liberated our designers and inspired new approaches for vehicle forms, proportions and packaging that we can apply to our upcoming production models.”
Powered by four motors, one at each wheel, the FFZERO1 is built for the track. If developed for limited production, it will have more than 1000 horsepower and will accelerate from zero to 60 in under three seconds, with a top speed in excess of 200 miles per hour.
FF has also announced a strategic cooperation with global technology brand, Letv. The two companies will build advanced electric vehicles by bringing together resources from four domains: technology, automotive, internet and cloud, and entertainment content.
Headquartered in California, the FF team is composed of experts in automotive, aerospace and technology fields who believe the future mobility experience should integrate seamlessly to the connected age.
The company plans to invest 1 billion US Dollars in the creation of a manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas. The company is set to break ground on this phase one investment in the next few weeks, and ultimately employ 4,500 people.