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Chinese Mobile Game Operator Invests in Faraday Future’s V9 Electric Car

Since its creation in 2014, electric car maker Faraday Future has struggled to get the same amount of traction other startups in electro-mobility did. For reasons that elude most, it failed.
Faraday Future FF91 1 photo
Photo: Faraday Future
Time and time again, Faraday Future has been either on the verge of launching its first electric car, or on the brink of collapse. Product-wise, the last time we heard the name was about a year ago when Faraday announced the FF91 will enter production by August 2018.

It didn’t, and the company was once again not heard of. Until this week.

The9, a Shanghai-based online mobile game operator, announced this week it will invest in Faraday Future’s plans to build and sell an electric car in China. The car in question is called V9 and is largely based on the FF91.

As with all other Faraday-related announcements of the past, this one too is grandiose in nature. The9 says the joint venture it created with the carmaker will begin rolling off cars as soon as 2020, with an annual production target set at a staggering 300,000 units per year.

To make that plan a reality, The9 will chip in $600 million, of which $5 million will come as an initial deposit and the resit “contingent on satisfaction of funding conditions.” These conditions were, of course, not disclosed.

On its part, Faraday will bring into the joint venture the use right in a piece of land in China and will give up in favor of the JV the “exclusive license to manufacture, market, distribute and sell” the V9.

“This is only the beginning of a series of strategic actions for FF, all designed to support the completion and launch of its new species FF 91 EV in 2019, continue development of the mass-market premium model FF 81 in both China and the United States," said in a statement Faraday’s founder Jia Yueting.

There are no details on the V9 yet, but the numbers for the FF91 are pretty much known: 300 miles advertised range (482 km), 1,050 horsepower developed by the electric drivetrain and 2.39 seconds acceleration time.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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