When form and function work in harmony.
Beleaguered American EV startup Faraday Future has released a new teaser video of its FF91 crossover/estate/whatever, this time talking about its aerodynamics. If you’ve been following the Faraday Future story (which more often includes scandal, lawsuits, and executive departures than anything about cars), you’ll likely already know that FF makes huge claims about the aerodynamic properties of its FF91, and how it’ll lead the class in terms of its drag coefficient.
Now, we get to see inside some of the work that’s gone into making that claim real.
“When you’re driving along and it’s raining, you can see the droplets on the car, flowing over the surface. From an aerodynamic perspective, you will always choose a fastback design. Most luxury vehicles of this size and shape have a drag coefficient in excess of 0.3Cd. Our target was to get it below 0.26Cd.” — Angus Lock, Senior Manager (Aerodynamics R&D), Faraday Future
We see FF’s senior aero engineer and their senior designer talk about how countless hours were spent in the wind tunnel in order to provide a truly class-leading experience for FF91’s (prospective) customers. Apparently the pair ran through about 20 iterations of the FF91’s spoiler to get it just right, and are pretty happy with their handiwork.
“It’s not something you can just put pen to paper and come up with something. We’re designing something different from the norm, a vehicle that doesn’t compromise on performance, range, or luxury. That’s why the collaboration between design and aerodynamics is so important. The spoiler’s definitely one of my favourite parts of the car. There’s a constant back and forth that’s required to make these products real.” — Brian Oh, Senior Manager (Design), Faraday Future
On another subject, Faraday Future’s main investor (and now CEO) Jia Yueting has been ordered back to China by financial regulators by the end of the month, to sort out what Reuters calls “a mounting debt pile linked to his firms,” namely LeEco (“the Netflix of China”) and its consumer electronics subsidiaries.
“Firms you [Jia Yueting] control owe huge amounts to listed companies, which has not yet been returned. This behaviour seriously harms the legal rights of listed firms, and the personal interests of a wide range of investors.” — China Securities Regulatory Commission
The CSRC had previously issued an order to Jia to return to China in September, but saw no action being taken by the LeEco founder to comply. The CSRC has stated that it was unaware of Jia’s whereabouts, but noted that he had business interests in the United States. In response to the CSRC, a spokeswoman from Leshi (LeEco’s main listed unit) said that his personal behaviour “would not have a major impact” on Leshi’s business dealings, and his ties with Leshi “were no longer that close.” Jia Yueting remains as the head of the parent company LeEco, but stepped down as Leshi CEO in May.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more information as it comes.
