We saw just a couple of hours ago what the electric vehicle from Chinese-funded EV company Faraday Future was going to look like. Now, we get to see it in action, sort of. Faraday Future still hasn’t shown the actual car but it’s given CES attendees a peek at the FFZERO1 through Oculus Rift headsets.
As mentioned in our other post, it packs in 1,000hp, a 0-60 acceleration in under three seconds, and top speed reaching over 200 miles per hour. Of course, these are all theoretical at this point but the California-based company is teasing that the FFZERO1 might go into “limited production.”
While the FFZERO1 isn’t going to be the company’s first production car, it shows what technology the company has to offerin the future. What we know so far about it is seems to be a highly customizable EV. The company makes use of an underlying technology called the Variable Platform Architecture.
Nick Sampson, a senior VP at Faraday in charge of R&D and engineering, told The Verge ahead of the press event, “That platform is done on a very modular and flexible basis such that we can change the size of the platform.”
The car can have different drive systems, it can have bigger or smaller battery packs either on the electrical or physical size. It can offer a flexibility not really seen in the car industry. Faraday Future hints of having a unique business model for its cars where users can subscribe to plan to have access to autonomous cars of different types, depending on what you need. Much like how you would customize your phone plan with your carrier. But you can opt to get a sedan at one point or a cargo vehicle on another day.
For the battery, Morris says it’ll look much like a chocolate bar. It makes use of adaptable strings of batteries, where rows of these batteries can be added or taken out depending on need.
In that respect, motor placement can also be shifted within the platform so it can be front-wheel, rear-wheel, or all-wheel drive.
Faraday Future won’t say who their cell suppliers for the batteries are though.
When we talk about the EV’s interiors, you get a quick peek of that through the FFZERO1’s glass roof. Inside it has white carbon fiber interior and unusual design and tech ideas, like the smartphone mount in the steering wheel. It also has what’s called the Halo Safety System, which provides support for the driver’s head and neck, and a helmet that can feed the driver water and oxygen. And just like your other health-tracking gadgets, the instrument panel in this vehicle can also gather biometric data about you.
The company is currently building a billion-dollar factory in Nevada. There is no word yet when we might see a production version of the FFZERO1 concept but the company plans to introduce an actual car “within the next couple years.”
Source: The Verge
