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Faraday Future goes public as it plans next stages of growth

Faraday Future CEO Carsten Breitfeld joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the completion of its SPAC merger and public debut, as well as plans for growth and sales in the EV space.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: We wanna invite into the stream the CEO from Faraday Future. This is a car that we first saw a couple of years back, but now here we go, ready for production. Carsten Breitfeld is joining us as well as our executive producer Pras Subramanian. Good to have you both here.

And I'm gonna let Pras talk about what it was like to ride in this vehicle. But Carsten, when, potentially, are deliveries? Because I was reading about 90% ready to start building.

CARSTEN BREITFELD: Thanks of all-- first of all, thanks for having me today here. This is a great day for us. I'm, I'm very excited to be here in New York City at NASDAQ. So we completed our first big milestone today. We got public. We got the billion funding in. And the next big milestone will be delivering this car, which will happen within 12 months. It will be built in California and delivered out of California to the world within the next 12 months.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Hey, Carsten, Pras here. I'm curious about that factory in Hanford. How is that going? You said that in a year, you'll be able to put out production models. Are you guys putting up production builds right now or are there any kind of verification things happening at the factory?

CARSTEN BREITFELD: Yeah. So the factory is under construction since some time already. It's relatively low volume, so it's designed for 10,000 units. We have 90% of our production tooling complete. 75% of the equipment is in place. We completed all of the pre-production validation, and we are just ready now for production tryout.

You have to recall that, according to our business plan, we are only going to deliver 2,400 cars in the first nine months. It's a top luxury product. It goes into the top luxury segment. And as you know, in car industry, if you do low volume production, it's way more easy to achieve than if you would go into a very high volumes right away.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Are you guys seeing some interest here with that, you know, ultra expensive, the FF 91? I know it's a very luxurious car. You're saying small production numbers here. Are you guys seeing the reservations come up? Is there any, you know, sort of verified deposits put down for this car?

CARSTEN BREITFELD: Yes. So our strategy is we start in the top luxury segment. It will be positioned against brands like Maybach, Bentley, Rolls-Royce. And the beauty is there is no other electric and less connected car around. The FF 91 is a complete USB in the segment.

And then with an FF 81 18 months later, we are going one segment down into where Tesla S and X are playing today. And then with the FF 71, we will go into the mass segment.

We have 14,000 reservations right now, and of course, we have to convert them into real orders. We announced that we are going to have a launch edition of 300 cars. This is just the top model, limited to 300 units. And there's a high interest of potential customers on getting it.

- Carsten, we've seen a number of EV companies go public via SPAC. And some of them have run into a bit of trouble recently, when you take a look at Nikola, you also take a look at Lordstown Motors. I'm not equating your company to that. But I guess, more so, just broadly speaking, because I think investors are now questioning some of their investments in these EV companies.

Any concern there? I guess, how are you looking to reassure investors at this time that they should buy into your name?

CARSTEN BREITFELD: It's basically two fundamental elements. One is if you want to be leading in this industry, if you want to be successful, you have to need a winning product. And a winning product needs technology.

So in Faraday's case, you have leading technology for propulsion systems. And we are building smart devices on wheels. So for the in-car user experience-- we call it third internet living space-- we have absolutely the leading technology.

And the second thing is you have to build a brand. You have to find your market entry. If you would go right away into the volume segment, it would be more difficult because people have to talk-- to learn about the brand before. And this is why we started a top luxury segment with a product which shows what is possible today. Everybody will talk about it. Many people will desire it, and not many would be able to afford it.

This is how you start a brand. And once this brand is established, then we are going to get bigger and bigger market shares with different products.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Pras, what was it like to ride in this vehicle?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: You know, very quickly, I was in one of the prototypes that the company had in Manhattan here. I went for a ride in the FF 91. Like Carsten is saying, it's a very big, actual, very big car, and lots of space in the back, almost like a first-class seat back there with the fully reclining seats.

And I know, Carsten, you guys are very focused on the passenger experience with your screens everywhere. Everyone has a screen that they can watch TV. They can, you know, go in there and they watch "Yahoo Finance" like I did. And it's a very first-class experience.

And I know that, Carsten, you guys have a dual strategy here with US and China. And I see this car more of a China focused car, with people wanting to be driven there. But then for the future, you wanna go for more cars that will drive too. Isn't that right?

CARSTEN BREITFELD: Of course. Yeah, the cars are becoming part of bigger ecosystems. Autonomous driving is coming up. Shared mobility is definitely coming up. And so our product is-- every seat is a great seat. Yeah, the philosophy, it's not only built for drivers. It is fun to drive-- 1,050 horsepower, 0 to 60 miles in 2.4 seconds. It's really amazing. But all the other seats are great seats as well.

And, as you said, in the rear, you have 49 inch of leg room. You have the biggest display in this industry. You have first class airline seats and you have full connectivity. So you can convert it in your office, in your rolling office, if you want. And this will become more and more important in the future when mobility is shared and autonomous driving is coming up.

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