In the FF long-term planning, selling cars will not be the main business.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Future Car Daily” (WeChat public ID: auto-time), author: Terence Lee Nan.
Author | Li Yinan
Edit | Liang Chen
“FFF’s business model will be more successful for Bitsla.” Bi Fukang’s ambition to succeed as the CEO of the car company Faraday (hereinafter referred to as FF) remains.
On October 14, Bi Fukang attended a media communication meeting in the office of Faraday (hereinafter referred to as FF) in Beijing, and explained the current situation of FF. In addition to the FF financing situation and the mass production progress of its models, Bi Fukang also disclosed the future plans of FF.
“Tesla has achieved good results in the past 15 years. People did not believe that electric vehicles could be successful 10 years ago. They have achieved the popularity of electric vehicles. But Tesla is still selling. In the car, there is no good feature in the business model.” Bi Fukang showed confidence in the FF mode when facing the media.
Bi Fukang said that in the FF long-term planning, selling cars will not be the main business of FF, FF hopes to achieve profit through the content of digital ecosystem and shared travel. In short, FF intends to build a fully self-driving shared travel service fleet. Bi Fukang admits that if such a plan is to be realized, FF still has a lot of strategies to be realized, the most important of which is the mature autonomous driving technology and the mass production of its affordable model FF71.
According to Bi Fukang, FF is currently developing a car platform called VPA M2.0. FF is currently preparing for the development of the FF71, and the VPA M2.0 platform will help FF control the price of the FF71 at around $3,500. In the future planning of FF, FF71 will become the main model of its shared travel service fleet. If the plan goes smoothly, FF71 will be mass-produced in China in 2022.
And in terms of autonomous driving technology, Bi Fukang also said that “FF is not as self-developed as Tesla, it is not wise.” Bi Fukang believes that autonomous driving technology will become a service that has always been similar to mass goods in the future. FF only needs to integrate technology into products.
In the eyes of Bi Fukang, Tesla is not the object of FF imitation. He is more accustomed to comparing FF to a technology company like Apple. “Apple is a good case. It does not own any factory, but it can bring a good technology and user experience to the world. We will also make our business maintain the characteristics of light assets in the development process. This is our core strategy,” said Bi Fukang.
FF company has been established for many years, and has fallen into a financial distress several times. The first mass-produced electric vehicle FF91 has not yet been delivered. Financial anxiety and mass production delays are still two major problems facing FF. In this regard, Bi Fukang said that the delivery of FF91 on time in September next year is still the most important thing in the whole company.
