Faraday Future Reveals First Body-In-White FF91

Faraday Future claims that its FF 91 is on track for first deliveries in December of this year.

The proof of that is this first completed structural frame of FF 91 (also referred to as Body in White) made at the new Hanford factory, slightly ahead of schedule. According to FF, key suppliers are working side-by-side with the FF BiW team to meet or beat deadlines.

The pre-production prototypes were earlier tested at high-speeds, so the progress is seen in several areas.

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Faraday Future says that first batch of deliveries will take place between December 2018 to mid-2019. We can just assume that it will be a rather low volume figure though with two or maybe three-digits total, but that’s just a guess.

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More in the press release:

Faraday Future (FF) announces today that the first complete body-in-white (BiW) for the FF 91 all-purpose fully connected luxury EV has successfully initiated full-vehicle assembly, following its arrival at the new FF Hanford factory two days ahead of schedule.

FF 91, first introduced to the public and media at the January 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, has undergone over two years of intensive validation testing in all possible conditions to be certain that the final product exceeds the expectations of the most discerning VIP users..

FF Tooling and Equipment Manager for Body-in-White, Hector Padilla, helps oversee this entire process on site and reports, “It is honestly inspiring to see how hard we as a team are working to achieve FF 91. And it is not that we must push people to work, but everyone is more and more eager to do so as they see the complete car become a reality.”

Several cutting-edge manufacturing technologies are used on FF 91 BiW (and by December all to be possible under the same roof at FF Hanford):

• 1,500+ self-piercing rivets for joining the aluminum body structure
• Among the several job-specific body-joining technologies: Aluminum resistant spot welding, cold metal transfer (CMT) welding
• Flowform® screw technology allowing an innovative uni-directional joining process not possible with conventional sheetmetal joining methods
• Among first applications of Flexweld® resistance element welding (REW) on “Class A” panels that facilitates aluminum-to-steel welding – a particular challenge
• Earliest use of wireless “transducerized” torque tools for all appropriate safety-critical points (a great help in comprehensive error-proofing, total process connectivity/traceability, and precision of assembly)

Senior VP of Manufacturing for FF, Dag Reckhorn, said, “There is no question that this team and our suppliers have faced many significant challenges in getting FF 91 to this point, and even slightly ahead of schedule. This is really a huge accomplishment over these past two years. All while focusing on the true luxury and quality of the final product. Our constant focus on teamwork, avoiding functional ‘silos’, has paid off.”

FF Founder and Global CEO, YT Jia, said, “This is one of many big milestones ahead for FF as we enter the final stage in introducing ‘our new species’, the FF 91 flagship. In the truest FF spirit, our teams and global partners have gone above and beyond to get to this important phase ahead of schedule.

”Everything we do relies on our proven UP2U (User Planning To User) approach. FF will redefine the meaning of customization at a whole new in-depth, high-end, and personalized level – each user in the near future will have the opportunity to provide input and witness the creation of their own personal FF 91 along the bespoke production line at FF Hanford.”

The order book for FF 91 early users – aka “FF Futurists” – has been open since the start of 2018 and first deliveries are due starting in December of this year through the middle of 2019.