Faraday Future (FF) completed the first pre-production build of its FF 91 at its Hanford, California factory. The F91 is the company’s flagship vehicle, an all-electric luxury car manufactured with an aluminum body. The EV has an estimated 0-60 mph acceleration below three seconds and an expected range of 300+ miles. Furthermore, the F91 is an intelligent robotic vehicle design, representing the embodiment of FF’s vision to create a shared mobility ecosystem.
“It is inspirational for us at FF to see all the parts come together for this significant day,” said Dag Reckhorn, senior VP of Manufacturing at FF, “from the literal parts of the FF 91 from our various on-time supplier partners to the processes and tooling within the Hanford facility itself and the invaluable training for the essential ‘soft’ skills required for this level of sophisticated teamwork that I and others need in our Hanford production teams as we begin creation of our FF 91 for demanding users.”
The body-in-white of the FF 91 is primarily an aluminum structure, in which several cutting-edge manufacturing technologies are used for joining it together. This includes a combination of 1,500+ self-piercing rivets, resistant spot welding and cold metal transfer (CMT) welding for job-specific body joining, and Flowform® screw technology, which provides uni-directional joining that is not possible with conventional sheetmetal joining methods. The vehicle also includes Flexweld® resistance element welding (REW) to facilitates aluminum-to-steel welding on “Class A” panels. The body manufacture also implements the earliest use of wireless “transducerized” torque tools for all appropriate safety-critical points, which the company states is a great help in comprehensive error-proofing, total process connectivity/traceability, and precision of assembly.
“There is no question that this team and our suppliers have faced many significant challenges in getting FF 91 to this point, and even slightly ahead of schedule,” said Reckhorn upon completion of the first body-in-white in July. “This is really a huge accomplishment over these past two years. All while focusing on the true luxury and quality of the final product. Our constant focus on teamwork, avoiding functional ‘silos’, has paid off.”
Since it was first introduced at the January 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the FF 91 has undergone over two years of intensive validation testing in all possible conditions to be certain that the final product exceeds the expectations of the most discerning VIP users. “Everything we do relies on our proven UP2U (User Planning To User) approach,” said YT Jia, FF founder and global CEO. “FF will redefine the meaning of customization at a whole new in-depth, high-end, and personalized level – each user in the near future will have the opportunity to provide input and witness the creation of their own personal FF 91 along the bespoke production line at FF Hanford.”
First deliveries of the FF 91 is expected to begin by the end of 2018.
