FFZERO1: A Car of Concepts
It’s finally here.
Today marks the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and we have just announced some exciting news: the unveiling of Faraday Future’s FFZERO1 Concept vehicle.
We’ve been hard at work for months, endeavoring to bring this physical blueprint of our philosophy — this “car of concepts” — to life. Now, we’d like to invite you to experience a glimpse into our design and engineering vision.
Meet the FFZERO1 Concept.
This engineering marvel was born from humble beginnings: Richard Kim, Head of Global Design, came across a team member’s daydream-driven sketch of an ultramodern, high-performance electric vehicle. This rendering resonated with him — he realized that such an imaginative machine could be crafted with the same unique technologies that Faraday Future was already pursuing.
Richard excitedly shared the sketch with Nick Sampson, SVP of R&D and Engineering, and they both were immediately captivated with its unique potential. Nick, with his background in engineering sports performance vehicles, was ecstatic with the idea. “That’s incredible,” he proclaimed, “We should build this on our platform.”
Building a supercar may not seem like the most obvious decision for a producer of electric vehicles and new mobility solutions to make. But, Nick and Richard’s teams saw the FFZERO1 Concept as a remarkable opportunity to explore and amplify the design and engineering ideas that they were developing for our production vehicles.
Faraday Future’s engineering team was particularly eager to experiment with their new Variable Platform Architecture (VPA), a unique system developed for electric vehicles that combines structural stability with extensive modularity.
What makes this platform so groundbreaking is its dynamic, endlessly adaptable design. The chassis can be extended or contracted based on the vehicle’s needs. In doing so, we can vary the number of stored batteries, which are arranged in what we call “strings.” Adding or subtracting battery strings will modify a vehicle’s potential weight, energy efficiency, and travel distance off of a single charge.
This VPA offers us an unprecedented variability in vehicle design, allowing for a diverse, highly-customizable fleet of cars to be produced at maximum efficiency and with minimal environmental impact.
The FFZERO1 Concept gave us a chance to truly push this platform’s potential, serving as a technological testing ground for our upcoming production vehicles.
Since our electric vehicles will not require the unwieldy mechanical excess that traditional cars do — such as centralized engines, obligatory exhaust outputs, and cumbersome reservoirs for gasoline storage — we can model our new vehicles from square one with minimal physical compromises.
This lets us design from the ground up — or rather, from the “inside out.” Doing so allows us to focus on the driver and passengers’ interior experience and safety first, while optimizing the physical arrangement of the vehicle’s unseen systems second.
This philosophy of “inside out” design is on full display in the FFZERO1 Concept.
Every aspect of the vehicle was shaped around the needs of a single driver. The vehicle envelopes their form, allowing for exceptionally intuitive, ergonomic control. This passenger-centric design language will be incorporated into our future production vehicles.
The driver’s seat was inspired by NASA ‘zero gravity’ design, offering an unparalleled sense of weightlessness and reduced driver fatigue. We are infusing these same principles into our production vehicles to offer a singularly relaxing, rejuvenating experience with every ride.
The aerodynamic tunnel that runs through the center of the vehicle’s body reduces drag, resulting in greater power efficiency, higher top speeds, and optimal battery and motor cooling as it redirects air across the car’s internal surfaces. This approach to multifunctional design and economy of space has remained a driving line of thought throughout the development of our production vehicle.
The steering wheel offers a hub for the driver’s personal mobile device, allowing for remote vehicle setup, customized configurations, modifiable power outputs, and real time data visualization and interaction. This degree of integrated connectivity is central to the larger operational frameworks we are developing for our vehicles.
Though Faraday Future is not a race car company, the process of designing the FFZERO1 Concept served as an indispensable proof of concept for the technologies we are developing, the all-digital design processes we are embracing, and the incredible collective power of the world-class teams that we have assembled.
We see the FFZERO1 Concept not as merely a concept car, but as a “car of concepts” — an embodiment of our design and engineering vision, our aspirational values, and our impassioned collaboration.
It was an extraordinary process to make this car, and an exhilarating road to CES. Our true journey, however, is just beginning.
