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at 8 a.m. beijing time on september 20, jia yueting, founder of faraday future (ff), announced that ff will launch its second brand - "faraday x" (fx), and plans to launch two new cars priced between us$20,000 and us$50,000.

image source: faraday future wechat official account

ff global ceo matthias aydt said that the company's second brand is an important part of ff's overall growth strategy and part of the company's global automotive industry bridge strategy. "the faraday x brand is driven by a variety of factors, including the market environment, competitive landscape, user needs, corporate strategy and industry adjustments." matthias aydt said that the goal of the new brand is to apply the technology of the $300,000 ff 91 to products priced at $30,000.

jia yueting stated that the goal of the fx brand is to accelerate the popularization of aiev in the united states, build a bridge for the automotive industry, integrate the high-quality and low-cost global supply chain system including china, and become the "toyota" of the aiev era.

new brand models produced at handford plant

according to jia yueting, the fx brand will launch two models, fx 5 and fx 6, in the first phase. as the first model of the fx brand, fx 5 is a large-space sports aiev for the mainstream market, with an estimated price range of 20,000 to 30,000 us dollars; while fx 6 will be a family ai luxury super-large space model, with an estimated price range of 30,000 to 50,000 us dollars. "fx is committed to providing high-performance and affordable electric vehicles to meet the ever-changing needs of today's users." jia yueting said that the first fx 5 is expected to roll off the production line by the end of 2025.

image source: faraday future wechat official account

it is reported that the fx 5 and fx 6 models will provide two power systems, extended-range and pure electric. "as the first oem in the united states to fully promote extended-range electric vehicles, ff provides american users with a series of aiev hot-selling products with 'twice the performance and half the price'," said jia yueting.

matthias aydt explained the reason for launching the extended-range model. after market research, he found that the us market could not find a suitable extended-range model in the price range below $30,000. in addition, the high cost of the domestic supply chain and the incomplete construction of charging infrastructure in the us have created a huge gap and window between the us and other global markets. ff hopes to reach the unreached mass market in the us through the second brand strategy.

according to matthias aydt, two products under the fx brand will be produced at ff's hanford plant in california, u.s. "because we already have production capacity at the hanford plant, it is easier to expand production," matthias aydt said.

matthias aydt also admitted that ff hopes to produce fx-branded products with the lowest capital investment and has already cooperated with other oems in production.

a reporter from the daily economic news learned from ff that the fx brand has established cooperative relationships with four oems, and has signed two strategic framework agreements and two memorandums of understanding, and is in the process of signing final agreements with these oems.

want to use the high-volume models to achieve cash flow growth

in june this year, jia yueting revealed that: "ff is considering launching a second brand under the 'china-us automotive industry bridge strategy' and launching mass-produced models."

at that time, ff had not delivered a new car for four months due to lack of funds and unable to purchase parts. on june 13, ff announced that it had completed the delivery of a new car to a senior individual investor user. this is the 12th ff 91 2.0 futurist alliance delivered by ff since mass production and delivery in 2023, and it is also the first delivery completed after ff's delivery work was suspended for 4 months.

on august 13, ff completed the delivery of the second ff 91 2.0 futurist alliance since the restart of sod2. on september 19, jia yueting announced again on his official weibo that ff will deliver the ff 91 2.0 futurist alliance to the latest owner on september 20, local time in the united states. the delivery of the car indicates that ff has completed the delivery of the 14th car since the official mass production in 2023.

image source: sina weibo (@贾跃亭)

regarding the market positioning of the two brands, jia yueting explained that the ff brand focuses on the top of the tower market, and its most distinctive feature is that it is impossible to sell in large quantities. the second brand focuses on the base and middle of the tower market, pursuing scale.

"the two brands, ff and fx, will empower each other to create a complete aiev ecosystem covering the ultra-luxury and mass markets." jia yueting said that ff will seize the historic opportunity of the us ai industry and achieve explosive growth in sales and cash flow through large-scale vehicle models, creating huge value for investors.

in fact, the shortage of funds has been the crux of ff's long-term operational difficulties. on august 15, ff released its second quarter 2024 financial report, which showed that in the first half of 2024, faraday future achieved a cumulative revenue of approximately us$295,000; with a significant reduction in r&d and sales costs, its net loss dropped from approximately us$270 million in the same period last year to approximately us$157 million.

judging from the above data, ff's performance is developing in a positive direction. however, ff's overall financial pressure is still severe. the financial report shows that as of june 30, ff's total book assets were approximately us$458 million, total liabilities were approximately us$309 million, and net assets were approximately us$149 million. not only that, ff's operating cash was only us$29.1 million.

ff is confident about the sales of fx brand models, and expects the sales of new cars to reach tens of thousands in the early stage and hundreds of thousands in the later stage. "looking to the future, i am full of expectations for ff's prospects and i am confident that we can achieve the company's established goals," said matthias aydt.

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