
Mysterious billion-dollar car company is taking on Tesla - Jerry2
http://nypost.com/2015/11/06/mysterious-billion-dollar-car-company-is-taking-on-tesla/
======
swang
> Incorporation papers filed with the California secretary of state's office
> links Faraday to a Chinese media company operated by Jia Yueting, an
> entrepreneur who founded Leshi Internet Information & Technology.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3307660/Myste...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3307660/Mysterious-
firm-backed-one-China-s-richest-men-set-build-billion-dollar-factory-Tesla-
Apple-electric-car.html)

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anotheryou
lets try to snoop around!

[http://justcapital.com/](http://justcapital.com/) uses the same privacy
policy (word for word)

edit: Their webmail is chinese, makes Apple quite unlikely
[http://webmail.faradayfuture.com/](http://webmail.faradayfuture.com/)

edit2: faradayfuture.net was also registered at the same time and has a
different whois (still cloaked, but more chinese)

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ethana
It could just be the Chinese group that bough Fisker.

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rsync
That would be cool if Fisker made an electric car and not just a hybrid ...

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gtrubetskoy
Another not so mysterious company that I once used to love is focusing
exclusively on an electric vehicle:
[http://www.saabcars.com/](http://www.saabcars.com/)

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psadri
Odd, the rims on the electric version look just like Tesla's turbine rims.

I never owned a Saab myself but I get the impression they are solid, lovable
cars.

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OopsCriticality
You know how if you're stopped at a light and clean the windshield, the washer
fluid sprays, the wipers cycle, and then there's some drips of washer fluid at
the top of the wiped area that then drips down the windshield so you have to
manually trigger the wipers again? My old Saab had a delay built in to the
call for wiper fluid so that it would automatically sweep the wipers a few
seconds to get those last drips. It was but one of many thoughtful design
elements.

Saabs had a character that was unique; regardless of how one felt personally
about driving one, the auto world is poorer place without Saab.

~~~
seesomesense
One Ford bought Saab and dumbed down the cars, the writing was on the wall.

Bankruptcy was inevitable.

~~~
OopsCriticality
GM bought Saab. Ford bought Volvo.

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salimmadjd
From the rumor mill from people who moved from Tesla to Faraday. They're going
for the mid market vs. Tesla's high-end market. Also, from the same source the
quality and feel is no where near Tesla yet. So don't expect Tesla, but expect
something 30-40% cheaper.

~~~
maxerickson
That makes the headline sound even worse. Something like "New company hopes to
start selling electric cars in 2017" better reflects the content of the
article (which hilariously talks about other attention the company has gotten
as hype (I realize an editor probably wrote the headline, not the author)).

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lordnacho
Fantastic, more competition is exactly what I need as a consumer. I really do
think the self-driving car is around the corner, based on chatting with a guy
on the Google team.

No idea why it would need to be secret, though? It could just be low
publicity, rather than secrecy?

~~~
tracker1
I think what is really needed is to get rid of the dealer protection
racket/laws... That will do more to shake up auto buying/sales in terms of new
cars into the market than anything else...

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phkahler
Tesla's biggest competitor is the established auto industry. The guys need to
stop listening to the folks who say its easy to start a car company. If hile
there is some truth to that, its not with the investment. A billion dollars is
a new platform, not a new company.

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forgotpwtomain
The problem is still that in most regions of the world electric cars are still
a gimmick with an environmental friendly marketing spin.

Essentially dirty methods of producing electricity and converting that
electricity back into mechanical energy are less efficient than gasoline
engines. So yes - we do need electric cars and it's great companies are making
them but that won't have a significant impact until the industrial-scale
energy problems are addressed.

~~~
sokoloff
You assert that electric is less efficient. Can you share any data (or even
back of the envelope math) to support?

Small gasoline engines are pretty damned inefficient, and I think it's only
reasonable to compare full lifecycle costs of our energy sources. For coal,
that includes mining. For gasoline, that includes refining (and military
defense of oil?). For all, it includes transportation, etc.

It's not obvious to me that gasoline is more efficient than electric. (Nor is
it obvious to me that the converse is true, either.)

~~~
temuze
Depends on the country.

In countries that have electricity coming from fossil fuels, it's inherently
less efficient. In countries like Norway where everything mostly comes from
hydro power, this is completely different.

~~~
sokoloff
Typical average power plant efficiency is around 33%

[http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_08_02.html](http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_08_02.html)

That's slightly better than the typical maximum efficiency of an internal
combustion gasoline engine (and way better than the average, including idling
and other inefficient operating conditions).

Electric cars suffer from two additional conversions, each of which adds
inefficiency, but it's not obvious to me that this overcomes the efficiency
benefit from having a central power plant using fossil fuels more efficiently
than in the auto. To me, it seems close enough that it takes actual analysis
to determine the winner.

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merb
I hope for more electric companies and vehicle's.

I'm from germany and I hope that our automotive's starts to waking up.
especially after the vw scandal. fuel filled motors aren't the future. please
american companies. create electric vehicles, lower the prices and start
attacking our foolish overpriced german car manufacterers.

~~~
genericacct
I think Toyota is very well positioned with their new €14K hybrid

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merb
a hybrid will change nothing and 14k€ for a car is fucking expensive,
especially since the innovation there is nearly nothing. in over 20 years cars
didn't get much love.

and the design? cars looking more and more the same.

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rmason
Maybe because it's not in Silicon Valley and thus less well known but Detroit
Electric has created a lot of PR locally about its plan to take on Tesla with
a car out in 2016:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric)

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porsupah
Electrek offers up their own analysis of the fact soup:

[http://electrek.co/2015/10/26/teslas-biggest-competition-
for...](http://electrek.co/2015/10/26/teslas-biggest-competition-for-talent-
might-not-be-apple-but-faraday-future-an-letv-backed-startup-in-los-angeles/)

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mschuster91
Why does everyone and his mother love the X6 design? It's the biggest (though
only) design failure BMW has ever launched.

As to the rest of the article, well, competition is certainly good for the
e-car ecosystem. Interesting times ahead!

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RadioactiveMan
What makes it a design failure if it is so popular?

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mschuster91
Personal opinion tbh. That ass of the car just doesn't look like a BMW ass to
me.

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lsc
The "crossover" market isn't for car people. It's for regular people who
actually want a minivan, but who are too embarrassed to drive a minivan.

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LAMike
Never thought of the Apple connection before... Seems plausible

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threeseed
Really doesn't. Apple has never actively released who works for them except
their leadership team, they never put up fake web pages, they never prerelease
products.

This would be a complete 180 in terms of their style and behaviour.

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vicapow
They've also never built a car before

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gchokov
That space is only going to get more crowded.. which is good!

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vatotemking
This is good news. The more electric car companies we have, the better. Even
Elon would like to see that happen.

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marpstar
Looks like Robocop's helmet.

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fleeno
I can't wait for more cars companies named after scientists! Maybe someday
I'll be able to get a car from... Hertz?

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samstave
Well you can rent them from Hertz!

But also - there is already a faraday company which makes electric bikes in
San Francisco.

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JohnBooty

         Well you can rent them from Hertz!
    

That... that was the joke.

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IanCal
There's one born every second, eh?

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samstave
Seems to be sixty per second on the TV!!

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mpg33
uhhh Apple?

