FF 91 research and development: Tesla's former executive lineup

Jia Yueting, who is willing to give his life to his dreams, has experienced many hardships, but the development of Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as "FF"), which has been raging for more than two years in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, has not stopped.

Time is not long, "closed door", finally replaced this year's first Internet eco- electric car FF91 turned out, and the world's more than 2,000 elite researchers created this new car instantaneous detonation CES (International Consumer Electronics Show Will) created a record of up to 64,124 vehicles in just 36 hours. In the words of Lu Zhengyu, vice president of LeTV Supercar (China) Co., Ltd., "this number is the first in luxury car and electric car bookings."

On January 6th, in the Gardiner R&D Center, the most important base of Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as "FF"), the reporter saw the FF R&D executive lineup for the first time. Four of the six heavyweight vice presidents are from Tesla , and their goal is only one: a new generation of luxury electric vehicles developed by Chinese people and overseas super research teams will be mass-produced next year.

FF lineup: Tesla executives join

The Gardiner R&D Center is located in an industrial area south of Los Angeles. The grey buildings are not eye-catching. Only the fish-shaped “FF” sign on the front side of the building reminds people of this.

As the R&D center of the former Nissan car, it was bought by Jia Yueting several years ago, and now more than 900 R&D personnel from more than 40 countries around the world work here. In Munich, Germany, Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Beijing, and Gardiner, there are more than 2,000 people working for the development of the new FF91. Among them, Silicon Valley is mainly responsible for the direction of autonomous driving and intelligent technology. The main business of battery, inverter, design, manufacturing and supply chain is in Gardiner. Since the R&D center greeted guests, all photography and photography have been rejected in order to prevent leaks, so it is almost impossible to find a positive photo of the R&D factory on the Internet.

In an audio-visual room with a huge TV screen, the reporter saw Richard Kim, vice president of design at FF. He was a founding member of BMW i Design and the chief designer of the i3 and i8 concept cars. It is no wonder that the founder of the car home, Li Xiang, mentioned BMW in the evaluation of FF: "The FF91 is more like the i7. Whether it is the body arrangement, the door opening method, the internal design, it is like the BMW i series pure electric future flagship version, XXL The version of i3, performance is good enough." However, Richard Kim said, "At present we just let everyone see the appearance and part of the design of FF, FF91 is still very different from the BMW i7, and this difference will be released in the future Will be revealed one by one."

The most indispensable among the top executives of FF is the former Tesla company.

The reporter queried public information and found that Nick Sampson, senior vice president of product development and engineering at FF, had a resume with Tesla. He was responsible for vehicle and chassis engineering under the leadership of Tesla founder Elon Musk, and was one of the design leaders for Model X and Model S. After Tesla, he was the main R&D executive at Trexa, a technology company focused on electric vehicle chassis. Trexa has developed the first open electric vehicle chassis "Geodrive Platform" (also known as the variable-drive platform), which is reminiscent of the FF91's main "VPA variable electric drive chassis architecture." Like the Geodrive Platform, the VPA also has a modular chassis and battery design that can be flexibly matched to a single battery. Anyone can build a new electric car on this type of platform. Nick Sampson is also familiar with energy storage, electronics, drive units, applications and controls, and it is worth noting that he was the first to join FF in the former management of Tesla, in April 2014.

Since then, Tesla's original class has been sneaked in: Alan Cherry, vice president of human resources, 23 years of experience in the automotive industry, senior director of human resources in Tesla (2008~2012). After working briefly for 1 year and 8 months at Picarro, he officially joined FF in September 2014.

Dag Reckhorn and Tom Wessner, vice president of FF manufacturing and vice president of supply chain, also have Tesla's work experience, and the time to enter FF is October and November 2014. On May 17, last year, James Chen, who had worked in Tesla for six years, also announced his departure and joined FF, responsible for domestic and international government affairs and electric vehicle production.

Dag Reckhorn told reporters, "We (some former Tesla colleagues) have known each other for a long time. During Tesla's work, there was no mistake in research and development. Now we hope to avoid the mistakes we have made in Tesla. Wrong, the FF factory was built faster and the FF91 was mass-produced."

"FF91 is not a Tesla upgraded version"

Of course, although FF executives almost all have Tesla's background, they do not admit that they are mimicking Tesla to create a new luxury sedan product. The FF91 is seen as a completely different technology and design imagination. Force's new Internet eco- electric vehicle .

In the R&D workshop of the FF inverter, a staff member told reporters that the FF inverters are all produced by themselves. "We must ensure that this product is both efficient and reliable, so it must be independently developed and manufactured. It requires high energy. Density and volume should be as small as possible to leave space for passengers. The energy density of this product is 30% higher than that of ordinary products.” At the same time, Tesla uses induction motors, while FF uses permanent Magnetic magnet motor, "Look, there are a lot of windings on our product, which can improve the cross section and reduce the consumption."

In terms of battery design, FF gives a technical route with a battery life of up to 700 kilometers. The battery is small, but the energy density is 130% of the competitor. It is beyond the Tesla and is rare in the industry.

The company's office responsible for battery technology development is in the middle of the R&D center building. Hundreds of seats are separated by a tight glass door and are never open to the public. One of the staff said, "This high-energy-density battery is also very demanding on R&D technology and has a strong technical challenge. One of them is how to keep it long. FF hopes that the battery can have 15 Years or even longer."

In the battery design, the FF91 also inherits the design characteristics of multiple battery packs connected in parallel. Six sets of single cells are compactly placed in the battery module, and the batteries are connected into a safe and compact matrix, which greatly increases the mileage of the vehicle and reduces the excess space. "For us, the stability of the battery temperature is very critical, which is also a big problem in the industry." The battery pack developer told reporters that in the unique cooling design, the coolant continues to circulate throughout the system to achieve rapid heat dissipation. Make sure the cell temperature is the same.

The electronic control network monitors the performance of the battery module in real time, balances the temperature, and activates the emergency plan when a component fails. The ballistic-weight, load-bearing aluminum housing maintains a balanced vehicle weight, lowers the center of gravity, and seals the battery pack. The collision zone around the battery pack further protects the battery pack from potential damage.

At the experimental base of the exterior of the door, the reporter also noticed that the FF91 has a facing door with an induction device. Assuming that there are fire hydrants or other pedestrians around, the FF91 can automatically monitor and close the door in advance to avoid collisions. You can think of it as an enlarged version of a children's toy electric car that automatically avoids corners or pedestrians. "FF91 as a smart electric car, in the design concept and technical presentation, is clearly ahead of the concept car designed by the traditional car brand, this is definitely worthy of recognition." Li Xiang commented.

Temporary factory plan is in progress

As the major shareholder of FF91, Jia Yueting once said that the new car should be mass-produced in 2018, which has hardly appeared in the history of automobiles and new energy. Take Tesla for example, it took five years to launch the first car Roadster. In contrast, FF's history is too short: it was just established in 2014, and at the end of 2015, it announced the construction of a North American manufacturing base in North Las Vegas, Nevada, with a total investment of 1 billion US dollars, although it was acquired by Nevada. The state's $335 million tax and capital concessions, but the start of construction is not very smooth, there have been a series of incidents such as supplier disputes and local government officials questioning. FF has announced that the first phase of construction will be completed and the second phase of construction will be around March this year.

The FF factory with a total area of ​​950 hectares is just a “virgin land” for a large number of earth and stone cleaning, land leveling, signal tower relocation, fences and temporary facilities. There are many difficulties in mass production. This is also why a large number of media have questioned Jia Yueting’s claim that “the mass production in 2018” is not in line with common sense.

So, is there any alternative to completing the mass production plan?

Dag Reckhorn told reporters that the company is currently considering a flexible solution, "I will first propose (this program), which is evaluated by the company's senior management."

The temporary solution is that the company will select a small area also located in Las Vegas, and build a large-scale production line for small-scale manufacturing of FF91. The R&D, production and supply chain will be copied and handed over to the future. Large factory to use.

“The FF91 we made is an aluminum alloy body. It is almost the same as the aluminum body in the product manufacturer. We will also put the powertrain in this new factory, which covers electronic components, motors, The production of battery packs, etc., is the establishment of a small assembly plant."

Tom Wessner also said that the development of electric vehicles is different from traditional cars. Traditional car manufacturers have their own product design capabilities. By handing this design to the supplier, they can create the products they want, but a brand new electric car needs producers and suppliers to design and develop together. For example, Chinese suppliers have the production capacity of castings and electronic components, but they do not necessarily have design capabilities. Therefore, although FF91 will be mass-produced in 2018, the design, performance, quality and production of all products must be After rigorous verification, mass production may be formed, which is why the FF91 team will not announce the specific timetable for mass production of the FF91. This also indicates that the large Las Vegas factory that has just completed land leveling cannot Construction in the short term will seriously delay the delivery of FF91, so a new alternative is likely to be selected.

“Before mass production, we still need to do a lot of work, so it is better to implement a small batch production plan.” Dag Reckhorn said that small batches of products can be used for various verifications including production and supply chain, for mass production in the future. Lay the foundation. Therefore, FF91 will consider all the components in one place, self-built car body, painting workshop and so on.

He also said that many suppliers who have cooperated with Tesla are also willing to cooperate with FF91. "EV (electric vehicle) is obviously the future direction of automobile development. Moreover, we have very young and energetic senior research and manufacturing personnel. The relationship and cooperation with the Tesla supply chain will be smoother. Before the Tesla product was delivered late, we hope to correct the previous mistakes and let the FF91 deliver the complete delivery to the customer under the guarantee of quality."

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