Faraday Future has had what has to be one of the hardest walks of life since its introduction. If you look back at our Faraday Future page, for example, you’ll see all kinds of stories about the company’s financial troubles, all of which came around the same time the first pre-production build of the FF91 came to life. After that, Faraday Future starting laying off workers which was followed a month later by the company’s co-founder leaving in haste. It got even worse as the company started a GoFundMe campaign just to lay off more employees a month later.

Faraday Future’s CEO, Carsten Breitfeld, might be pulling the company together a little better, with his main focus being on the FF91 and bring it to market – maybe by the end of 2020. However, during CES 2020, he expressed interest in several other cars and didn’t exactly rule out a Tesla Roadster competitor either. Here’s what we learned

Faraday Future Can’t Survive on the FF91, So More Cars are Coming

Faraday Future might be trying to finally get the FF91 on the market, but that baby is going to command a wallet-hitting price tag of anywhere between $120,000 and $200,000. That’s a rough place to start for a company already plagued by financial problems. And, as an all-electric vehicle, it will face stiff competition from companies like Rivian with the R1S, Tesla with the Model X and Model Y, and even BMW with the iNext. Some of these, if not all, will end up being cheaper than the FF91. The outlook still doesn’t look all that well, but the answer might be in producing other models with a more competitive price and smaller footprint.

Speaking to Autoblog at CES 2020, Breitfield said,

and at a much lower price, and the 71 which is even a bit smaller>

Despite a lack of specifics, we do know that both smaller models, the FF81 and FF71, will be all-electric too but will be more mainstream. They may be in a better position to compete with offerings from Tesla and BMW, among others. There’s also zero chance that Faraday Future will dip into the hybrid or hydrogen pools, either, so don’t expect anything but electric-powered models from the company if it survives.

Faraday Future Doesn’t Want to Challenge Porsche, Lotus, or Sports cars in General

Everyone has kind of expected Faraday Future to dip into the sports car market. After all, it has previously raced in Formula E and does have some experience in building fast cars – the FF91 won’t exactly be a slouch, either. Its multi-motor setup is reportedly good for some 1,050 horsepower and a 2.39-second sprint to 60 mph. The 130-kWh battery is said to be enough for an EPA-estimated 378 miles with charging speed being rated at an unbelievable 500 miles per hour.

With this kind of tech and at least some roots in the world of racing, taking on sports cars from Porsche, Lotus, or even models like the new Tesla Roadster, would be a relatively easy feat if the company can financially support itself. But, Breitfield expressed why it doesn’t make a lot of sense:

, but does it make sense for a company whose DNA is space and digital experience? Probably not.”>

So, the bottom line is that the company wants to focus on cultivating its brand DNA around “space and digital experience” and, sadly, a sports car doesn’t really fit in the DNA. Not all hope is lost, though…

A Sports Car is Possible, But It Won’t be a Faraday Future

For the foreseeable future, Faraday Future wants and needs to focus on its primary mission. That means that no staff can concentrate on anything but that “space and digital experience” DNA. However, Breitfield didn’t completely rule it out, saying,

“we can think about a lot of things, we can think about different brands to market different products. It's nice to think about it, but it's something which certainly I would not allow people to do now because they'd get distracted from the main mission.”

So, sometime down the road, once the FF91, FF81, and FF71 are on the market – assuming the company lasts that long – it might be in a place where its financial portfolio allows it to launch a secondary or sub-brand, maybe a performance brand, that would dip into the sports car market. At that point, the brand would be better capable of taking on the new Tesla Roadster and any electric sports car that other automakers come up with in the next few years. Remember, the next-gen Porsche 718 might be twinned with the Toyota MR2 and could be all-electric. And, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So, if Faraday Future manages to pull itself together, there will end up being a strong case for that sub-brand.

Final Thoughts

Looking back at Faraday Future’s history, I have to admit that I’m beyond skeptical that we’ll ever see the FF91 on the market. And, even if it does, I have a hard time putting faith in the notion that it’ll be successful given its price and all the turmoil that led up to its release. It’s been a year since Faraday Future and its main investor solved their problems, but things have been relatively quiet ever since, so maybe things really are better than they look. With the FF91 slated for debut in 2020, it looks like we might find out sooner than later. One this is for sure, I’m really curious to see what the FF81 and FF71 will be. Will they just be smaller SUVs? Will there be a full-fledged sedan? Faraday Future says that it doesn’t want to compete with the likes of Porsche, Tesla, or other premium sports car maker, but in the end – as all companies start going electric – that feels like an inevitable future.