Faraday unveils concept electric race car; can it catch Tesla?

[Zorro]

Source: Reuters

Start-up electric car venture Faraday Future on Monday previewed a technology-heavy concept race car it hopes to develop into a range of connected vehicles that can challenge luxury rivals like Tesla and Audi in the growing global market for non-gasoline cars.

The California-based company, which has backing from Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, has remained tight-lipped about its plans since its launch 18 months ago. Days ahead of this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it still had revealed no details about its debut vehicle, expected for 2017.

Faraday is part of a group of Chinese-funded start-ups hoping to capitalize on disruption in the auto industry amid global regulatory demand for electric or hybrid vehicles, a growing trend of connectivity in cars and a sharp rise in interest in mobility alternatives, such as Uber.

At the center of the new wave of China's electric vehicle (EV) producers is Jia, founder of LeTV <300104.SZ>, or Leshi Internet Information & Technology Co. Jia has also funded another California EV start-up, Atieva, and other EV efforts.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/faraday-unveils-concept-electric-race-car-catch-tesla-064940489--finance.html

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Good luck catching Tesla.

[Gregorian]

1. And the race is off!

Believe it or not, I went to my first electric car show in 1962. I was a child, and I was certain that our near future would include electric cars. We even made our own electric car when we were about 9. It was a lawn chair with a car battery and starter motor. Here it is:

[byronius]

3. That is BOSS.

Seriously, it looks fast. Was it purely self-designed?

[Gregorian]

10. Oh yeah, we were only about ten.

That's nothing. A couple of years later a neighbor who worked at Lockheed, made a gokart with his son that was just outrageous. It was a flap motor off some big plane, and that gokart was scary fast.

We were welding up bike frames at that same age. Our other friends are the ones who made millions in the bike industry. We chickened out. The guy in the video is retiring in a few months. I just realized he commutes by electric scooter. We were way ahead of our time.

[EdwardBernays]

2. looks cool

but I've actually gotten really cynical about all these techno cars... :/

[Kelvin Mace]

4. I drive a Leaf

for about a year now, and they are very cool and cheap to drive.

[EdwardBernays]

5. That's cool

I'm sure it's nice and all...

I am just VERY wary of self-driving cars, and that seems to be the end goal of all electric car manufacturers these days...

Electric cars on their own are fine

[Kelvin Mace]

7. The problem with SD cars

is even if you get it perfect (a BIG "if&quot there are all the other dumb cars with dumb drivers on the road. If an affordable, reliable SD car was introduced tomorrow, it would still be 3-4 decades to replace the current stock of cars. I think you will see more tech added slowly to existing cars (lane deviation warning, anti-collision radar, heads up displays, better headlights, etc) than full out replacement. All it will take is a single "Hindenburg" event to deep six the whole concept. So, I share your skepticism.

Personally, I look forward to those incremental tech enhancement in the next gen cars, but they will be electric regardless. I have bought my last gasoline car.

[EdwardBernays]

8. That's not my problem with them

My problem is that they're being designed to tie into other corporations...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-06/apple-and-google-tempted-by-cars-that-can-buy-morning-coffee

It's just another way to create and enforce monopolies...

I'd LOVE to be able to sleep on long trips, or watch a movie, but don't REALLY like a future where cars are deciding which chains people can get to in their robot cars... this kind of corporate synergy is being planned as we speak....

[Kelvin Mace]

9. Yeah, not a big fan of

"synergy" either.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Just a couple of observations

1) Tesla is spending 5 times what Faraday is spending just on a single battery plant, so $1 billion, while a lot of money, will not cause Tesla to sweat.

2) The car they are showing off is a race car they don't intend to produce. Kind of a waste of time and money then.