Faraday Future's latest teaser is a bit misleading

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,284   +192
Staff member

Faraday Future a little over a week ago published a teaser clip of its upcoming consumer electric vehicle lining up for alleged drag races against a Bentley Bentayga, a Ferrari 488 Italia and a Tesla Model X P100D. At just 17 seconds in length, however, the clip wasn’t terribly revealing.

With its second “powertrain testing” video, we get a full 45 seconds to soak in (more like 35 seconds if you discredit the last 10 seconds). So, what can we gather this time around? More than you might think.

For starters, we have the same lineup of vehicles:  a Bentley Bentayga, a Ferrari 488 Italia and a Tesla Model X P100D with Ludicrous mode. Just as before, Faraday Future doesn’t mention what distance race we’re looking at which meant I had to do some detective work.

A Google search for the Irwindale drag strip (Faraday Future’s proving ground) indicates that it is indeed an eighth-mile track, not the more conventional quarter-mile length. By examining Google Maps satellite imagery and YouTube videos, I discovered that the vehicles aren’t running the full eighth-mile length but rather, less than half of it.

The company’s representatives in the video carry on about 0-60 mph acceleration and torque although again, it’s never clear exactly what we’re watching. While not outright deceptive, it does feel a bit misleading. Can Faraday Future’s vehicle not outrun the competition in the eighth-mile? If it can, why not record and publish that instead?

Based on what we've seen thus far, there's no denying that Faraday Future's SUV / crossover is fast off the line but what length of time it can maintain that level of acceleration remains a mystery.

Faraday Future is expected to showcase its prototype consumer electric vehicle at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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