After two years in the development wilderness, Faraday Future is marching forward toward producing its first ultra-luxury electric SUV.
The company announced Monday that it built its first "body-in-white" of the FF91, the basic body structure of its upcoming first production car.
Faraday Future plans to deliver the first FF91s to customers as early as December.
The body-in-white is the first produced using production tooling at the company's new factory in Hanford, California, a former Pirelli tire factory. Previous prototypes of the FF91 have been more or less hand built.
READ THIS: Faraday Future gets a $2 billion lifeline to build expensive crossover
Faraday Future was thrown a financial lifeline last month when Hong Kong-based Evergrande Health agreed to invest up to $2 billion in the company and take over from previous investors who had run into financial problems.
The new investment apparently got things moving quickly.
Faraday Future FF91 body-in-white
Faraday had to ramp up complex production of the aluminum body structure, with self-piercing rivets, aluminum-resistant spot welding, and specialized resistance welding for joining aluminum and steel panels."
"This is one of many big milestones ahead for FF as we enter the final stage in introducing our new species, the FF91 flagship,” Faraday Future CEO and founder Yueting Jia said in a statement.
CHECK OUT: Faraday Future unveils FF 91, its first production electric car; deposits open, no price given
The FF91 is expected to deliver 1,050 horsepower to snap the big SUV from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. Its 130-kwh battery will be good for 378 miles of range, the company said. In testing, a prototype sustained 120 mph for 55 minutes.
All this performance won't come cheap at an estimated price of more than $300,000.
Faraday Future says it will follow up the FF91 with a smaller, more affordable FF81 but little else is known about the company's second model.
