Hello, everyone, and welcome! I am John Schilling, the PR and Communications Director at FF. I wanna welcome you all to FF's Second Brand Strategy and Global Automotive Industry Bridge Launch Event. I'm joined today by a number of FF's executive leadership team, including FF Global CEO Matthias Aydt, FF Founder and Chief Product and User Ecosystem Officer YT Jia, and FF Vice President of Product and Corporate Strategy Max Ma.
Who will further present the details of FF's Second Brand Strategy and our Global Automotive Industry Bridge Strategy, including what they mean for the EV marketplace, as well as the interim achievements made by the company this year. Leading up to today's event, we conducted a two-week online survey called Everyone's AIEV: You Decide, which gathered input from a significant number of participants worldwide and will ultimately help us build and sell better EV products for o ur users.
We will also share the results of the first phase of the survey during today's presentation. At the end of today's presentation, we will have a Q&A session, where our executives will try and answer your questions live as the last part of today's event. Over 80% of the questions were collected through the online survey, and we also welcome media and investors who have joined via Zoom today to type your questions live.
Our executives will do their best to try and answer them. Today's event contains forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. In particular, our plans related to our second brand strategy are dependent on our ability to secure the related necessary capital.
A discussion of risks and risk factors is included in the presentation materials available on the Investor Relations section of our website, and are detailed in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. Thank you again for your time and attention today, and now, let's welcome FF Global CEO, Matthias Aydt, who will provide an update on FF's business and explain the background and reasoning behind the second brand strategy. Now over to you, Matthias.
Thank you, John, and thank you all for joining us today for the announcement of our second brand and an overview of our global automotive industry bridge strategy. This new brand is integral to our overall growth strategy, which includes our global automotive industry bridge strategy. Our approach aims to integrate global automotive components and supply chains into the U.S., energizing the US battery AIEV industry, and offering more diverse and improved product options, like the range-extended AIEV.
Before diving into the specifics of our new brand, let me update you on our progress at Faraday Future in 2024, highlighting key milestones and our strategic plans. During the last 12 months, we transformed the company from a project-driven organization to an operation-driven organization, with heavy weights on cost optimization, cost control, quality stabilization, and user operation.
Earlier this year, we held our first Investor Community Day to showcase our technology, team, and commitment to innovation and stockholder value. It was a tremendous success, and we will do more of this moving forward. The FF ieF actory remains a crucial asset, offering the potential for full production capabilities and potential collaboration with other OEMs. We also announced in early September, that we have regained compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements, meeting all continued listing criteria.
Product excellence is key. We are enhancing the FF 91 2.0's product and technology, focusing on AI advancements, including the application of generative AI in mobility. Since Q2 of 2024 , we have begun producing vehicle bodies and the assembly of some of our interior components in-house, reducing costs significantly as interior costs have been halved. Our production and quality control systems are maturing.
Notably, our partnership with Master Investment Group, led by Sheikh Abdullah Al Qasimi, from Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, marks a significant milestone in our regional expansion. Incremental funding will support our global automotive bridge strategy and entry into the Middle East. Earlier this year, we established a sales entity in Dubai, marking a key milestone in our expansion. This entry into the Middle East supports our third pole strategy, complementing our dual home markets of the U.S. and China.
The expansion builds on the FF brand's introduction to the UAE in 2023 . We continue to engage potential partners in the region for strategic financing, business development, and sales. Imad, our head of UAE, just successfully finished the business registration in Ras Al Khaimah, and we are moving into a first office and engineering workshop area, and we plan to have a team there in October. We are constantly focused on cost control and expense reduction at FF.
Operating expenses and losses from operations have improved significantly compared to the previous year. Looking ahead, I'm excited about our future. With our talented team, I am confident in our ability to achieve and surpass our goals. The FF 91 2.0 remains unparalleled, and with our new brand, we have the potential to reach a broader consumer base. Just to let everybody know, we will deliver our next FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance tonight at a special venue in Hollywood. Stay tuned! Our next step is a significant strategic upgrade.
Alongside developing FF's high-end brand and subject to securing necessary funding, we will leverage a bridge strategy to add a second brand business. I would like to share with you, everyone, the background behind FF launching a second brand. Some of our followers may know that at the founding of FF, we had a plan to establish a dual brand strategy. FF, with our FF 91 2.0 AIEV targets, the ultimate AI tech luxury market.
While the second brand will be aimed at a mass market with lower cost EV options here in the U.S. Due to our strategic approach, we first focused on building the FF brand and establishing its premium position before moving on to the second brand.
With the evolution and transformation of the global automotive industry in recent years, opportunities in the US mass market for AIEVs, including industry user, demand, partnerships, and FF's own strengths, have created fertile ground and a historic window for the successful launch of FF's second brand. We also recently launched a pre-event survey for the second brand, and today's event, titled Everyone's AIEV, You Decide, with the first phase already successfully concluded.
From user feedback, we see that the U.S. EV industry is lagging in several areas. Examples include extremely low market penetration for new energy vehicles, slow development of supporting infrastructure, like charging stations, a lack of complete domestic supply chain, limited product variety, high prices, insufficient market competition, and inadequate government support.
From an industry opportunity perspective, the U.S. AIEV mass market is a vast blue ocean, meaning there is ample opportunity for the right products, and the range-extended AIEV market is almost untapped. Although the U.S. is the birthplace of the global EV industry, according to public data, its new energy vehicles penetration rate is less than 20% in Q1, compared to China's more than 50% in August, showing that there is plenty of opportunity for us.
From the user demand perspective, US consumers are eager for AIEVs that offer an excellent price to performance ratio, especially range-extended AIEVs priced under $30,000. Currently, American users have almost no option in this price range that provide the electric and AI-powered experience they seek, which is precisely our opportunity.
As the CEO of an American-based global company, I have to admit that China has already surpassed the U.S. in terms of product power, competitiveness, and product structure in the AIEV market. The range-extended AIEV market in China has seen explosive growth, striking the perfect balance between intelligence and range. Meanwhile, there's almost no range-extended AIEV product available in the U.S., coupled with high domestic supply chain costs, underdeveloped charging infrastructure, and insufficient competition.
This has created a significant gap between the U.S. and other global markets, presenting a major opportunity for FF to launch its second brand and global automotive bridge strategy. More importantly, we aim to use this strategy to explore the untapped AIEV mass market in the U.S., help enhance the global competitiveness of the American automotive industry, and contribute to the growth of both battery AIEVs and range-extended AIEVs, ultimately expanding global market share.
What's more, FF and the second brand will mutually empower each other, creating a complete AIEV ecosystem covering both premium and mass markets. FF's 6x4 Product and Technology Architecture, domestic manufacturing experience, and brand strengths are assets that the second brand can inherit.
Meanwhile, the second brand's large-scale sales potential can feed back into FF, significantly enhancing FF's technical manufacturing, supply chain, and user ecosystem capabilities, and helping FF reduce costs and improve efficiencies. The core logic of FF's second brand and bridge strategy is to create an industrial bridge, fostering close collaboration within the global supply chain to develop high-performance, cost-effective AIEV and RE-AIEV products for the US market.
...In summary, the launch of FF's second brand is driven by multiple factors, including market environment, competitive landscape, user demand, corporate strategy, and industry adjustments. In fact, it is a necessary move that will bring real value to users, the industry, and FF from multiple perspectives. Thank you. Now, I would like to welcome YT Jia. His heart beats for our move and adaptation of this strategy.
Thank you, Matthias. Hello, everyone, I'm YT. I am excited to share something that's very important to FF's strategies and unleashing the company's full value. Today, we are unveiling FF's second brand. It's a product strategy and the innovative ways we are creating AIEV products with twice the performance at half the price for US users. We also outline our execution and the launch plans for these exciting new products.10 years ago, when FF was founded, we had already established a dual brand strategy.
Back then, LeEco had vast experience in scaling products for the mass market and achieved remarkable success. We've been brewing this brand for ten years. So what is its name? We are calling it Farady X or FX for short. Our brand slogan for Farady X is, "Co-create an AIEV for everyone." Our slogan interpretation is that through FX five initiatives, such as open source, open platform, user definition, co-creation, and sharing, we will empower these 30,000 model with the core technologies used in the 300,000 FF 91.
Our goal is to develop RE-AIEVs that make the ultimate AI tech luxury accessible, delivering products with twice the performance at half the price, and make them affordable for everyone. Farady X, as our second brand, inherits the DNA of Faraday Future, while also taking on a distinct mission.
Let's take a look at this chart. The goal of the FX brand is to accelerate the adoption of AIEVs in the U.S. , to lead the global auto industry, and to integrate high quality and cost-effective supply chain from around the world, including China. By doing so, FX aims to become the Toyota of the AIEV era.
Thanks, YT. The inspiration for the FX brand is deeply rooted in FF's unique genes, and it also perfectly reflects the logic of the math function Y equals FX, where X is the independent variable, F represents the corresponding rules, and Y represents the final outcome. For the FX brand, X represents our users, partners, the industry, and all the more limitless possibilities. F not only stands for FF, but also for the mutually empowering open source collaboration between FF and the X, as we co-create value.
This synergy between F and X will bring out phenomenal products, generating rewards that everyone can share. As is clearly shown in the chart here, FX is a fundamental part to FF's dual brand strategy. It inherits the FF genes of open source and open access, co-creation, sharing, while it also takes on a distinct mission.
Let me introduce FX's target audience and brand value. FX is born for the hardworking people who find perseverance in mundane life, the people who work hard and love their life. We hope to make it possible for everyone to own an AIEV with an extreme price-experience ratio, achieving AI equality and time equality. In this way, we help ensure that everyone, when traveling from point A to point B, can enjoy the same luxurious AI experience.
At the same time, we help users balance family and personal life, as well as work and leisure. All new brands need a logo, and much like a unique and well-received FF logo, FX needs a new logo, one that is unique and inspired by the genesis of the FX brand.
So today, in the spirit of co-creation and sharing, we invite you to join us in setting another industry standard for logo design. I'm thrilled to announce the launch of our global logo co-creation initiative. Please stay tuned for more detailed information on this unique opportunity to help us design our new logo. Now back over to you, YT.
... Meanwhile, we are also proud to launch Faraday X AIEV Inc. in the U.S. This entity will be responsible for driving FX's overall strategy and execution independently. Next, let's dive into FX product strategy. I know you are all very interested. The FX model for vehicle production anchors on five key initiatives: open source and open platform, User Definition, co-creation and sharing, global auto industry bridge strategy, creating the new category, RE-AIEV, leveraging FF's legacy to empower FX, and the light and sweet premium quality.
With this approach, we are inviting our users to participate throughout the entire life cycle of FX products. Together, we will create a product that belongs to everyone, defined and owned by everyone. You can co-create your very own AIEV with extreme price-experience ratio, with minimum capital investment at maximum speed, so that everyone shares the value that the FX brand and its products create. The U.S. is the birthplace of the electric vehicle industry, and is regarded a pioneer in the field of new energy vehicles.
Yet, why is the adoption rate of new energy vehicles in the US only around 18% in first Q this year, when the number in China reached 53% as of August? In 2023, about 50 million new vehicles were sold in the U.S. So why is there hardly a quality AIEV available for under $30,000? Two weeks ago, we launched the Everyone's AIEV, You Decide co-creation service, the initial phase of our first initiative. As of September 19th, we've received an exciting response with nearly 10,000 survey submissions.
The results have been insightful, highlighting three significant gaps and a strong demand in the US market, apart from battery electric vehicles. First, EVs in the $20,000-$50,000 range, especially those priced between $20,000 and $30,000. Range extended EV, RE-AIEV, technology and models. Third, intelligent cabin or the Third AI Space. Let's have the floor for Max Ma.
Hi, everyone. My name is Max Ma, and I'm responsible for the FX brand. Today, we move into the phase II of our Everyone's AIEV, You Decide campaign, unveiling the FX for all product definition co-creation tool. We firmly believe that the true co-creation happens when everyone is involved in defining, developing, and testing. Only then can we build a car that truly belongs to all. Can we achieve our target of co-create a AIEV for everyone, and can we ensure everyone shares the value FX creates?
Let's take a look at our co-creation tool, and then scan the QR code or visit our website to participate. I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of fun defining your own product. To express our appreciation, we also have prepared exciting rewards for you. Everyone has the chance to become a FX co-creation officer, gain access to vehicle purchase incentives, or even win contribution awards up to $10,000.
Visit our site website or app for more details. Besides battery electric vehicles, the second key initiative is to create an entirely new category, the RE-AIEV. We're aiming to solve the pain points of U.S. AIEV users head-on, filling a significant gap in the American automotive market and seizing a historic opportunity for industry transformation. Together, with our potential partners, we'll look to set sails into the untapped blue ocean market.
Our analysis, supported by survey findings, suggest that range-extended electric vehicles are poised, have the potential to overtake plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the market. The global automotive industry bridge is the third major initiative. By integrating global supply chains, including China's, known for their low cost and high quality, we aim to develop AIEV products that offer exceptional price experience ratios. It is also a crucial prerequisite to FX success.
The fourth initiative will tap into the hyper momentum that FF has built over the decade, and unleash the potential through FX for a concentrated breakthrough. Subject to securing necessary funding through the FX brand and its products, we could drive explosive growth, and complement, and enhance the strategy ecosystem. The fifth of FX's product strategy is light and swift premium quality. FX has the potential to be light in capital, asset, sales, and marketing, and also swift in decision-making, execution, production, and iteration.
Based on the five initiatives, I believe our FX brand will achieve great success. In the past few months, the team has reached great achievements. I'd like to invite YT, and Matthias, and our teams on the stage to share those exciting news. Thank you, Matthias.
Sure. Okay, congratulations. Standing with me are the dedicated core members of the FX project team, who have been pushing for and witnessing every step of progress. In the past period, we have efficiently collaborated with multiple OEMs on the signing of agreements and the implementation plans across areas such as product, technology, research and development, engineering, supply chain, compliance, production, sales, and aftersales, achieving highly effective results.
Today, I'm excited to announce that FX has established relationships with four OEMs, having already entered into two strategic framework agreements and two memoranda of understanding as we are finalizing definitive, definitive agreements with each. Now, we fully accelerate the next phase of work for FX.
I understand your eagerness for details, but due to the nature of these collaborations and the confidential nature with our partners, we will share more specifics as we reach significant milestones. Rest assured, we are committed to transparency, and we'll keep you informed as progress unfolds. Handing over to YT again.
Like Matthias just said, we have efficiently collaborated with four OEM Bridge participants on implementation plan across various areas, including contracts, signing, product development, technology, R&D, engineering, supply chain, production, compliance, sales, and after-sales service, achieving significant results. Moving forward, we will work closely with our OEM Bridge participants to push for next phases, ensuring that the second brand products are launched as soon as possible, according to plan.
Now, we move on to the most exciting announcement of today's event, the launch plan for FX's first batch of products. Staying true to our brand and product philosophy of twice the performance at half the price. We will be rolling out two hit models in the phase I, step by step. The first one is FX 5 , priced between $20,000-$30,000. A large space supporting AIEV for everyone.
The product slogan for the FX 5 is, "Co-create your AIEV with extreme price experience ratio," aimed at becoming the first AIEV for every hardworking person, helping them balance both work and life. The second vehicle is FX 6, priced between $30,000 and $50,000, an extra-large luxury AIEV for family. The product slogan for the FX 6 is, "Co-create your AI home on the road." Designed to be the top choice for families seeking a mobile AI space, offering the perfect blend of personal and the family needs.
Both the FX 5 and FX 6 models offer two types of powertrains and proportions. Range extended AIEV, RE-AIEV, and other AIEV, the AIEV. Here, I'm excited to announce that we are targeting for the first vehicle to roll off the line by the end of 2025. I believe by working tirelessly with our bridge partners, we will achieve this goal. How can we turn FX 5 and FX 6 into sales hits? The answer is our unique user ecosystem, consisting of three parts, user acquisition, co-creation, and user operation.
User acquisition is based on light models and a fully online direct sales system. We will build an innovative approach with less assets as marketing, less sales, and co-creation. Our goal is to transform products hits into sales hits. We believe that the FX brand and its products will deliver huge value to our users, partners, the industry, FF, and its investors. For the industry, FF, FX will strive to become an accelerator for the growth of the AIEV sector in the U.S.
For our users, we will make it possible for everyone to own an AIEV co-created with the ultimate price-performance ratio. For our partners, FX will collaborate with our supply chain partners to tap into the vast blue ocean opportunities in the U.S. AIEV market.
At the same time, for FF and FF investors, FX will seize the historical opportunity of AIEV industry development. With large-scale production models, FX will see explosive growth in its sales, revenue, and the cash flow, while greatly enhancing the cost control capabilities. The massive amount of data will also support the exponential growth in our AI transformer large model capabilities. Together, this will create huge value for our investors. Over to Max.
Thanks, YT. As we have discussed earlier, the AIEV era has arrived. However, the penetration of the overall clean energy vehicles, including battery electric vehicles, and hybrids, are still below 20%, where the BEV account for about only 8%. We also mentioned same major pain points resulting in the current situation. But besides the average $10,000 higher cost of the EV over the gasoline cars, and insufficient or inconvenient charging infrastructure, which cause the range anxiety, there are two more pain points on the intelligence side.
Well, except for FF 91, we really haven't seen any intelligent cabins, which change the nature of the cars being from a tool of transportation. On the other hand, except for Tesla, there is really not many choices for autonomous driving. Here are our solutions, and let me talk a little bit on each of those. First, to build an AIEV with extreme price experience ratio, it is a very hard job already. So why could FX achieve it? Well, we'll take many innovative steps while we're leveraging the existing expertise and resources of FF and our new partners.
Engaging our users into product definition is very critical. The campaign, Everyone's AIEV You Decide, will help us to get a successful product from day one, which also help to streamlining the investment. For R&D, FX will be supported by the AI, software, and internet technology that FF has accumulated for 10 years. At the same time, our OEM and supplier partner will support very much on the mechanical platform. Global supply chain is a key to bring the cost significantly down for reaching the extreme price experience ratio.
Lastly, FF's existing advanced manufacturing facility, the FFIE factory, could be easily upgraded for expansion, while we continue to produce the FF 91 in the same time. Coming back to the great new product category, the range-extended AIEV side. Not only has the technology been further improved to match the demands under AIEV era, the intelligence allows also the future, which enhance the technological advantages and solve existing issues.
The advantages of this exciting RE-AIEV platform are very obvious. You could now charge anywhere and anytime. The user will not worry anymore if there is a charging station close by. You could choose between electricity or gasoline to obtain the best cost. But the intelligent cabin has been one of my favorite topics. Traditional gasoline cars can really not provide much user experience, even though you would plug in your iPhone for CarPlay.
I am a Tesla user and also an FF 91 user. I can tell very much the difference. In this pricing segment of FX, Tesla is very much a driver-driven car. Having been able to experience the FF 91 for a long time, there's no better passenger experience, and I would like to bring it to FX. So it's easy to conclude what do we really want for the AI era? It has to be with the AI agents, right? It must enable users to do more besides just transportation.
We need to empower more for the driver, and driver will become more a passenger, and passengers can truly enjoy the time during the ride. For a better user experience, the large space is not avoidable, hence you might need a longer wheelbase, and at the end, the quality of your space needs to be aimed very high. All of those have been achieved at the FF 91. Technology-wise, we are kind of integrating this luxury AI and internet technology applied in a $300,000-ish car into a $30,000 FX products.
The very last but important aspect is the autonomous driving. We must understand the current challenging market situation so that we can have the right solution for our products. As of today, end-to-end autonomous driving is the mainstream. However, the investment required is now significantly higher. We're seeing in the United States that the leader of this area is investing billions of dollars into such like computing. We're at the situation of the big gets bigger.
The legacy companies, the startups, or even the key suppliers, will not be able to be in a position to invest, but then catch up. So what should FX expect? Well, the phone industry provides good references, Apple and Android, a closed system versus an open source system. The open source system helped the prosperity and the development of the mobile internet industry.
Our difference here is that Apple is a closed system and not open to others. While Tesla has mentioned to open their systems, unfortunately, right now, there hasn't been much progress, and there has been also concerns and risk around those losing autonomy of the OEMs who might consider to join the partnership. Or how about we try open source?
We believe at this moment, based on either the market competition, the stage of the startups, the DNA of the legacy companies, there is not a single company out there who could work on their own to come up with a great user experience on autonomous driving. The open source adopts the vision of value co-creation, benefits co-sharing, and allow everyone to save the money, to come up with the standards, to allow the suppliers, the third parties, and to become more focused, and also achieve a faster time to market.
Instead of everyone investing and knowing it won't bring the best user experience, why can't everyone work together to avoid wasting money and time, to avoid poor product results? It's very much worth thinking. For the pricing segment of FX, we expect significantly higher volume, ranging from tens of thousands as a proof of initial success, then going up to hundred thousands per year. We plan to leverage FF's ieFactory in Hanford, California, to reach the volume we have in mind first.
With existing expertise, resources, and team experience from FF and our core partners, we are working with full speed and are looking forward to the first vehicle off the line. Now, thank you, and back to YT.
With the introduction of the FX brand, product strategy, and the launch plan, as well as the related business and the initiatives, we are also thrilled to announce the global recruitment of top talent for Farady AI Inc. We invite you to explore our current opening on the FF website and submit your application today. Upon IPO in 2021, FFIE was our preferred ticker, but it only became available last year, and our management team believes it would better reflect our core vision.
Today, we are opening the final round of feedback collection. Should we change the stock ticker from FFIE to FFIE? To participate, please click on this link or visit the FF website or for more details. We are faced with a historic opportunity in the U.S. AIEV industry. By launching the second brand and fulfilling our new brand strategy, we aim to drive- ... diverse growth in our brand and products. Together, we are not just building a brand, but shaping the industry's future.
A heartfelt thank you to all of our retail and institutional investors, partners, suppliers, and our users. Your belief in our vision makes all of this possible. Thank you for being a part of this historic journey. Next up is our QA session. Please stay on the line.
Thank you, YT, and thank you all for joining us today. That concludes the formal part of our presentation, but as I said earlier, during the meeting, we wanted to have a Q&A session at the very end to answer some of the questions that you have given us throughout the meeting. And some of them were supplied before the meeting started. So, I'm joined again with Matthias and Max, and I'm gonna read some of the questions, and these two gentlemen are going to provide the answers.
So with that, the first question from one of our guests: Where do you intend to manufacture the second brand? Will the new brand qualify for tax incentives? And I think I'll throw this one to Max.
Okay. Well, as I mentioned earlier, we'll probably start off with the Hanford, which is where we have already existing manufacturing capacity, and it's gonna be very easy for us to expand to a higher volume. Once we reach the initial success, this product segment, we're seeing gonna be absolutely going up to, you know, more than 100,000.
So we are also thinking in the stage three or later, stage two, that we're gonna go for a higher volume factory, either. But we really want to minimize the investment, so it will be probably in a partnership with the other OEM for local production. And well, I see there's a second question there as well.
Yeah, so how do you plan to service repairs to the mass market AIEVs, considering that there was one of the issues with the premium version?
Yeah. I saw there, there's new brand eligibility for the tax incentive that I'll probably just go back for that question.
Okay.
Yeah. I think basically, I answered the question already. Hanford is starting. We're gonna start off, and then the incentive is, I think, is a lot of people want to understand. I think it's very clear for the criteria of the tax incentives, right? You know, you have to. The criteria says that you have to build in the U.S.
Your battery component has to be majority in the U.S. , and you have to also get a battery pack here built in the U.S. There's also a pricing cap that kind of giving the guidance of how you know, if you you know, how you can get those price incentives. I think for the FX brand, as long we fulfill those requirements, we should be able to get the tax incentives.
Thank you. Okay, now we'll go to the next question. How do you plan to service repairs to the mass market AIEVs, considering that was one of the issues with the premium version? And I think, either Matthias or Max can try to answer this one.
Yeah.
Yeah, basically, we are following the same approach as we have in execution for the FF brand. We have a network of companies supporting us. We are in the process of closing these partnerships, and then with that, we will have a dealer network - not a dealer network, an aftersales and service network, which supports us with the necessary repairs and aftersales and maintenance. Max, you want to add something for-
Yeah. I think really, you know, there's our business is really under the guiding principle of the shared economy and co-creation, co-sharing. So we're gonna have, you know, a lot of innovative way. On one hand, we'll get a lot of leverage of the existing resources from this aftersales market and know how other people have been doing. But also, in the same time, there are gonna be a lot of innovative way that we can use probably, you know, less investment and get a better achievement.
I think this is really we have this confidence. It's not only, you know, the founders previous company has done this very, very successful, but also, you know, with the current co-creation program that we have for the FF cars, has also already showed the early success. I think, in overall, this will be a very good plan that will help the FX to be successful.
Great. Thanks, Max. The next question gets into lower cost models. Specifically, will there be any lower cost model, cheaper models, like an FX 4, you know, cheaper than $20,000? So, Max, what do you think about that?
I think this is a very good question, and obviously, when we look at the overall FX strategy, we have been planning for the overall product portfolio. You know, the users have seen the FX 6 and the FX 5. So yeah, we're definitely gonna have some good surprise for the users out there.
Good. Good.
Yeah, I'll keep it confidential for now and keep a little bit of a secret for now.
Yeah.
But we'll come back and share more.
Good. Thank you. And I think that, that kind of segues into the next question that we got in about FX 5 and FX 6, are they already in progress, the R&D? And can you share more details on that? You know, where are we, I guess, with the status of those two products that we announced today?
Right. I think, typically, if you look at the whole vehicle program, the development, you know, development based on the process, we have already started with the initial milestones on those, and it has been progressing well. We have an established team to work on those, all the way from the, you know, from the product definition side.
We're also waiting for a lot of product definition from the users, and also the early research and look into how we're gonna conduct this program. So yes, there has been already a tangible, you know, tangible, and a good amount of work has been baked into this, and then the team will continue to work heavily on those.
Thank you. I know that we're working on some more questions coming up here. Here we go. What is the biggest problem around EVs that you can think of that you'll help solve in the next 3-5 years? And I'm gonna throw this one over to our CEO, Matthias, for that answer.
I think the biggest problem, EVs are facing is basically, on one hand, the new players, they have to settle, so as we have, and on the other hand, incumbent OEMs seem to struggle really with the paradigm shift, moving from an internal combustion engine to the electric propulsion system, and understanding what that means for the architecture of a complete vehicle, what it means for the product definition and the product offering.
And I think we can see with the existing EV vehicles coming from incumbent, that there is a huge gap. Looking at the FF 91, even it's potentially not affordable for everybody, but the product we have created delivers exactly what we will transform and translate into the FX products.
A product which is using all the DNA of the company, coming from consumer electronics, having an automotive background, combine that into a melting pot and provide a product which helps you with all the future automation to enjoy future driving with all the benefits of AI. From that perspective, I think that is what we are exactly planning to do.
Yeah, and basically, I would like to add something. Basically, all you have seen earlier as the four pain points, the current EV markets, these are actually the one we need to address, and that will be addressed in the FX product as well.
Great. Thank you. The next question comes from Albert: How does the second brand and global auto bridge strategy affect shares for shareholders? And I'll give that to either Matthias or Max, whoever wants to answer that one first.
I think it's hard to answer because it would be an investment recommendation, so I'd rather stay away from that and leave that to analysts who have been listening to our event today.
Yeah. Okay. Okay, that's fair.
But obviously, you know, we're all here for success.
Right.
Right?
Exactly.
We're gonna work hard. That's the reason why we think the second brand strategy is a great strategy that the company should adopt.
Exactly. Thank you. The next question comes from M.K.: Elon Musk is downplaying EV cars and is calling his company a technology company. How are you defining yourself?
Basically, if you look, we have developed completely our own software. We have developed our own ECUs. I'm not talking about safety-related ECUs, but all the other ECUs, all the connectivity, hardware. The software is structured in a way that it plays very well with what we have invented with the FF brand.
So calling us an EV company is one potential, but I would rather lean in the same way like Elon Musk to call us a technology company with what we have done as we are working on operating systems for our vehicles. At the end, it doesn't need to be limited to our vehicles. We can transfer and use this technology we have developed also in other applications, like vertical takeoff devices or even marine. So from that perspective, Max-
Yeah.
You want to add?
Yeah, I think actually, if you look at the, you know, how FF was founded, when YT founded the company ten years ago, and also you mentioned this four trends back then, this was already, you know, electric connectivity and intelligence, and sharing. So the DNA of the company has been, from day one, the tech company. We've been tech company, and we've been, you know, basically working hard to get the cars out there.
And I think we don't have to downplay, but obviously, we know the core capability, the core DNA is the software, as you mentioned, the AI technology, the internet technology that we really plug into the FF91 that we have so far, which is very unique out there.
I think moving on, and this is exactly the reason why, you know, the global automotive bridge strategy could be working very well, because we are, you know, further playing our core expertise, and use that to partner with our, you know, our partner from the OEM side to get this AI EV really crafted.
That's the reason why I think we don't have to downplay. We are a AIEV company, and we want to prove that we are gonna be successful to get the AIEV cars out, and then in the same time, we'll basically work further to get our core competence in terms of the software and internet technology and AI technology to be polished.
Great, thank you. Okay, the next question comes from Rick. Are you expecting to receive financing from Saudi Arabia, and will the second brand be offered in the UAE as well? And I'll give that one to Matthias.
So actually, at the moment, we are not expecting to receive any financing from Saudi Arabia. At least, nobody was knocking at our door yet, but that can come. And the second brand, for sure, will be offered in UAE as well. And UAE is playing also an important role for the execution of the FX strategy.
Thank you. All right, well, we are here, we have some more questions coming up. This one is more specific, I think, to the product, and it's from Irene Williams, and she asks: Would you still keep the reclining back seats or any specific features, assuming she means from the FF 91, moving into the next batch of cars on the FX side?
I think, first of all, you know, at the top of the FF 91 series, of course, that's one of the key features and then how we build out this third AI space. We really want to make it very unique, as I mentioned earlier, intelligent cabin to create more user scenarios. It shouldn't just be a transportation tool, as I said earlier. It has to be totally different, it has to be a living space, which is on the go. For the FX, it depends, obviously, on the space. You know, for the higher level vehicle, we're considering to really provide a great experience in the back as well.
But when you talk about in the, but overall, the space, the size of the space is very important for our FX overall product. That's the reason why we will definitely see opportunity. As long as we can put it in, we would try our best to put it in.
Thank you. The next question from Lynn Ran. It looks like it's a few questions here in this, but we'll start with the first one. How do the mainstream PHEV products in the U.S. compare to FX upcoming extended range EV? I guess that's the first part, Max, of the question.
Yeah. I think, you know, there has been a success in the U.S. in terms of the PHEV. There was not a real success of the range extender EV in the earlier days of the United States. Back then, there was i3, there was a Volt. Volts were not really successful. That's when it was kind of faded away.
Right now, in the market, you really don't have the range extender. However, we have observed the global market. We have noticed that the range extender EV, with a different way of product definition, a different way of the architecture and technology, in China, has been very successful.
We also, based on those, plus the AI portion and software and intelligence, we come up with basically based on what FF would think the best for the market, right? And that is actually gonna be significant because we all understand the pain point of the pure EV in terms of the range anxiety. But in the same time, there's a lot of beauty with EVs, with you know, great driving performance, smooth driving experiences.
So we really want to provide that, but when you have the hybrid, it does not really give you that, right? That's the reason why we are from the pure electric vehicle. We have this DNA, we have these genes. So what we're thinking is how we can really provide the user experience, in the same time, to really extend the range, especially for the pricing segment, is probably you don't have so large a battery pack. It's hard to do the charging very easily, especially there's a lot of broken chargers out there.
That's the reason why we think the range extender AIEV will be a hero product, will probably gonna have a lot of impact on the whole market and the change, and then provide a way better product in terms of user experience to everyone.
Thank you. And I think the second part of the question was, you know, I don't know if we're willing to share it or we can't share it at this time. It's basically the fuel tank, the battery size. You know, we determine what the best mix is with those two for these cars.
Yeah. Well,
Right. It's definitely a point where you need to put some thought in. And the deficiency of the plug-in hybrids is basically they're just an alibi providing electric driving for improving the emissions a little bit.
Mm-hmm.
But in a normal day-to-day use, you're lacking the possibility to drive and you commute fully electric, back and forth.
Mm.
And only use a range extended energy provision when you're going on a long trip. So basically, driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you don't need to stop for charging. You just extend your range by using the adapted range extender.
You know, this is actually very interesting. It's a very... We have thought on this, but this is also a very specific question.
Uh-huh.
I think we might consider to put it back into the survey, the power definition tool. So thanks for the question.
Okay, the next question comes from Rose. When do you foresee the release and first production and promotion of this new brand?
...As we showed earlier, the program timing was kind of delayed, and we're basically aiming to have the first vehicle offline by the end of 2025, and we're gonna constantly share more information and progress, so stay tuned for that.
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Jeff. He asks: "What do you see as the role of FF in the future of USA infrastructure build-outs?" Matthias?
Yeah, let me answer that a little bit more generic. So basically, with the development, which was ongoing in China over the last couple of years. So I left China in 2016 , and since then there was a huge development in regards of EV technology and also product quality.
The Western approach to hide it behind protective actions like tariffs or troubling the import of these technologies into the Western countries like U.S. or Europe. I think we are able, as we have a dual home strategy and dual home DNA, we are able to really provide a way to connect both worlds and open the dialogue and pull technology suppliers into the U.S., and build up the infrastructure in the U.S. to provide what we need for our AIEVs in North America, instead of buying it globally.
It also is a necessary measure to reduce the carbon footprint, and I think we have a chance to be a catalyst, and we can play the role as a catalyst to make that happen and open doors and dialogues where we have just protectionism at the moment.
Good. Thank you. Okay, the next question: "Do you have enough funding to make it to the FX 5 and FX 6 launch at the end of 2025?" Max-
I think as you know, there's gonna be a lot of collaborations. You know, once you step into the collaboration, there's always commitment. We're gonna make sure that in order to fulfill every milestone along the process, we'll need to, of course, get enough funding to support every milestone execution. And this is also, you know, just to make sure the commitments are out there, and to make sure, you know, our partners and everyone else is on the safe side.
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from, looks like Els, asks: "My question is about competition with other market players. How does FX compete with other EV manufacturers in China, such as BYD, Nio, and others, if and when they penetrate the US market? And how does FX compete with Lucid and Rivian, who are already well-established in the US market?
So if you look what YT has shared and what Max has shared, we are aiming for a different spot in the market segment. So if you look at the Lucid and the Rivian, they are in a price range which anchors around $100,000 or more.
Mm-hmm.
And as YT and Max mentioned correctly, we want to be able to offer products starting from $20,000-$30,000, going up to somewhere in the region of perhaps $80,000, with what we are looking at. And I think with that, we position ourselves very well in accompanying Lucid and Rivian. We have our premium product in the top end, which will also be developed to reach further down.
And then we have our FX brand, which is well-serving a bigger market penetration. And Max was talking about 100,000 volume at a certain point, which most likely is very rarely very little for the price points we were talking about and aiming for. BYD and NIO, they have to come to the US. We know what it means to be a U.S. OEM, that sets us apart, and for them, it will take quite some time to understand what it means to be in a country where you have to self-certify a vehicle and a product.
Yeah. I think at the end, we did a good analysis and understand the market pain points. The market does need great products, a great AIEV, great RE-AIEV product. So I think as long as we really, you know, make it happen with the minimum necessary investment from our, and then basically from our shareholders, I think that would give us a great success and also build a good protection in terms of competition. So we're looking forward to that.
Good. Awesome. Well, speaking of the end, I think that concludes our, our Q&A session. I apologize if we didn't get to everybody's questions, but, we will take a look at all of the other questions we got and, and try to figure out a way to get those answers out to everybody in the near future.
Thank you, Matthias. Thank you, Max. Thank you, YT, for speaking today and, and giving a presentation on the second brand and what that means to the marketplace here. I appreciate everybody's time. Thank you for joining us. And Matthias or Max, if you have any closing remarks, I'll put it over to you.
Yeah. I hope you enjoyed listening to us as much as we enjoyed giving you the speeches, and I'm looking forward to have you with us in the near future again, sharing the news of the development of FX, the FX story. So we will continuously keep you updated. Thank you.
And also thank you for the continued support, you know, the FX and also FF. And since we've been working so hard on this, and we're gonna continue to work harder. One good thing that would be, you know, we're also looking for a lot of talents, and we'll be reaching out to you, and then feel free to reach out to us, to build and to be part of this great journey, to make a great successful story here in the U.S. for the AIEV era.
Thank you.
Thank you.