Faraday Future starts shipping FF91 with many buzzwords and a $309k price
After starting production in March, Faraday Future has finally launched its FF91 EV, with an eye-watering $309k starting price and first deliveries starting tomorrow, May 31.
Faraday made the announcements in a livestream on its website today. It titled the announcements “FF 91 Final Launch & Faraday Future 2.0,” suggesting an entry into a new phase of life for the company, and describing the new car as a “new species.”
The FF91 was originally unveiled in 2017. At the time, Faraday said that it intended to produce the car in 2018.
But electric car startup observers are no stranger to delays, so that timeline slipped. And slipped, and slipped – until five years later, we are finally here, at the actual start of FF91 production.
Faraday promised the FF91 would have 1,050 horsepower, a 130 kWh battery capable of 381 miles of range, 200 kW charging, and self-driving capability. It also promised a 0-60 time of 2.27 seconds, which was faster than “other benchmark cars” (namely, Tesla) at the time.
These specs were incredible at the time and are still very good, though after five years of delays “other benchmark cars” have caught up and exceeded those numbers. But Faraday has kept the same specs as its original announcement without watering them down in the interim, which is nice. In fact, today’s video claimed the battery will be upped to 142kWh (though this might be nominal pack capacity, as opposed to 130kWh usable).
Faraday received over 64,000 reservations in 36 hours after the original unveiling. But these were unpaid hand-raisers, and on a more recent check-in, the company claimed to have 14,000 unpaid reservations and only 401 paid reservations, though we haven’t heard anything on those numbers in the last year.
Faraday started the stream with a long discussion about its “FF aiHyper 6×4 Architecture 2.0.” Frankly, our eyes glazed over a little bit in this portion, but here’s their slide “explaining” it. Good luck:
The company said that this is all meant to reflect 4 pillars of development – All-AI, All-Hyper, All-ability, and co-creation. As best we can tell, this was all meant to describe the car’s ability as taking advantage of the best strengths of sedans, sportscars and SUVs; comparing its capabilities to million-dollar hypercars; and using AI in its software-defined platform. Until recently, cars have been defined by hardware, but these days, many cars are being defined by software, with common software updates and modern infotainment systems.
With regards to the “co-creation” pillar, Faraday’s “co-creation platform,” which it is calling “The Mission Farad,” is essentially a referral program – refer friends to download Faraday’s app to get points (called Farads, the same name as the SI unit for electrical capacitance), and those points can be used for rewards. Faraday says these rewards “include awesome FPO titles to brag about on the FF App, Growth value and Co-creation points, and even future use of FF vehicles.”
In the future, Faraday seems like it will use this platform to gather customer feedback on its vehicles, and successful feedback/ideas will reward points to those who suggest it. Faraday is planning a “co-creation day” on June 6, which will presumably include more details on this. And we could imagine it turning into a sales referral program in the future.
The software-defined nature of the car enables various computing options, centered around a 27 inch rear screen (the “world’s largest in-car display”) and camera and a “10G in-vehicle network” (which isn’t a real thing) from three 5G antennas each connected to a different mobile carrier. Faraday mentioned that, among other things, this could enable livestreaming from inside the car (look out, INDI), and AI-powered contextual voice commands.
The car will also have an infrared camera in the driver’s seat to enable facial recognition for additional security. Faraday said that the car’s AI technology will enable it to “know you better than you know yourself,” which is frankly a little bit creepy, especially knowing that it has a camera on you at all times.
When you’re tired of all the livestreaming, you can relax in “spa mode” in the FF91’s “Zero G seats” capable of 60º recline.
Faraday now calls its car “the standard of Ultimate AI TechLuxury,” which is a bit of a mouthful. The company is aiming for the “ultra-spire” market, which as far as we can tell is its own term for luxury car customers. Embattled Faraday founder YT Jia compared the car’s level of luxury to that of Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Maybach, setting quite a high bar.
Since then we’ve learned that Maybach is officially entering the EV market this year, so FF91 will have a direct competitor there. Faraday thinks that one day it will become a leader in the ultra-luxury market, which it says sells around 55,000 units globally per year. Though Jia also said that Faraday will not use the same upscale materials as are included in these other vehicles, and rather focus “silicon-based” luxury which allows owners to better leverage their time.
And of course, no automotive announcement can go without a discussion of autonomous driving technology, where Faraday made several claims about existing capabilities, and more coming later through over-the-air updates. Faraday calls these “FF aiDriving”:
In addition to these promises of imminent self-driving capability (hmm, where have we heard this before…), Faraday says that the FF 91 will have the ability to create custom and proprietary maps, perhaps in order to help train the car to drive around private grounds that are not captured by public road maps. But the FF91’s FF aiHypercar+ subscription system will set you back $14,900 per year – but hey, at least you’ll get some Farad points thrown in.
And, finally, there’s the price. All of the above will set you back a cool $309k for the limited-edition “FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance,” or $249k for the “FF 91 2.0 Futurist.” No news, yet, on what the base price of the standard 2.0 edition will be.
In a show of exceptional grace, the company also guarantees resale price, stating that it will ensure a 60% trade-in price after the first three years (thus only costing $41,200 per year!). But maybe owners should think twice before trading it in, because Jia says that the car will have “irreplaceable collectible value.”
Electrek’s Take
The FF91 was never going to be cheap, given how Faraday has always targeted it as a luxury vehicle, but now that we see the actual price, there’s a certain amount of reality that sets in.
With this pricing, Faraday is stuck between a rock and a hard place. It needs to set the price high in order to make money on a low production luxury vehicle, but a high price is a lot harder to command when there’s more competition in the market than there was 5 years ago, and when economic uncertainty and interest rates make it harder for people to justify these higher prices.
As we mentioned when Faraday started production, this has been a long time coming with lots of delays on the way. And, frankly, we did not expect the company to get this far.
When this car was originally announced, I noted that it seemed like a “kitchen sink” announcement, with a vehicle that included every conceivable concept car feature. In a word, I thought it was unrealistic.
So, it’s quite an accomplishment that they have made it here. Bringing any car to market is incredibly difficult, so they deserve praise for that.
But today’s livestream felt much the same as the original announcement. The original announcement seemed driven by hype buzzwords more than anything, and today is no different. AI is the buzzword of today, and it was mentioned hundreds of times in the ~100-minute livestream. Faraday is even changing its stock ticker to “FFAI” from “FFIE,” according to today’s announcement.
The company couldn’t even keep its own buzzwords straight, simultaneously audibly calling one feature “AI carpet” while subtitles and slides called it “Magic all-in-one” – and then continued into discussions of hyper multi-vectoring, 3rd aiSpace and SynXwap, which is apparently some sort of NFT (that was 2021’s nonsense buzzword, get with the times Faraday).
A tip: jumbled buzzword nonsense doesn’t make you sound accomplished or smarter than the observer, it makes you sound like a grifter. Knock it off, Faraday, if you can.
Despite finally shipping cars, this is only the beginning of the challenges related to building vehicles. Now Faraday has to find customers, and at the price they’re asking, that could be a challenge.
There are already some excellent electric cars on the market, from both mainstream players and upstarts. These span a pretty wide swath of price ranges and levels of luxury. While the FF 91 promises significant luxury and seems to focus on extreme comfort of its riders (and “riders” is the right term here, since the company’s focus on rear seat comfort is aimed at the Chinese market, where it’s common for the wealthy to have personal drivers), it’s not the only startup in the luxury electric car market.
Lucid Motors also occupies that space, and has some very good technology going for it, and a head start on Faraday. And yet, it’s still on rocky ground in this market, and is having some difficulty finding buyers even at the high 5 figure level. The same goes for the behemoth of the EV industry, Tesla, whose Model X accounts for a tiny percentage of the company’s sales – and its base price also has one less digit than the FF91’s.
Since Faraday is aiming well past this high price range, it’s likely to have an even larger struggle finding buyers. Maybe some will come out of the woodwork looking for a luxurious electric crossover from a startup other than Tesla or Lucid at three times the price, but that is a rather small niche at this point.
Especially if Faraday is going to call its own car an “elephant,” which it did not once, but twice during this announcement video.
Here’s the full livestream of the announcement:
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An Angus ranch in southern Oregon has become the test case for a new kind of cattle-friendly solar, hosting RUTE SunTracker’s first commercial project.
The one‑acre, 120‑kilowatt array is the first real‑world installation of RUTE’s patented, cable‑stayed solar tracker designed specifically to coexist with grazing cattle. RUTE supplies the hardware and is also acting as the developer for its first regional cattle‑plus‑solar demonstrations.
What makes the setup different is the clearance. The tracker system provides about 10 feet of headroom, with panel heights reaching up to 16 feet across the array. That gives cattle full access to the pasture underneath while allowing ranchers to keep managing the land as usual. The project is interconnected to Pacific Power’s grid in Jackson County, Oregon.
Projects like this are getting more attention as the solar industry runs into land‑use limits. In the US alone, about 30 gigawatts of new solar capacity installed last year covered roughly 150,000 acres. Meanwhile, the country has close to 120 million acres of cattle pasture, much of it facing rising heat and water stress.
That’s where agrivoltaics come in. By adding solar to working pastureland, ranchers can create a second revenue stream while improving growing conditions for forage through partial shade.
“Within weeks of installing the RUTE canopy, the crew observed leafier forage and increased legume presence inside the array compared to outside,” RUTE president Doug Krause said. “Even on irrigated pasture, direct summer sun can be too intense.”
RUTE’s work has been supported by grants from the US Department of Energy’s American‑Made Solar Prize and the US Department of Agriculture. In October, Oregon State University’s Agrivoltaics Program began quantitative studies at the site to measure pasture production, adding hard data to what ranchers are already seeing on the ground.
Next, RUTE plans to take the project on the road. This winter, the company will present at cattlemen’s association meetings as it looks for ranch partners with onsite electric loads, such as irrigation pivot systems.
“In the near term, our focus is on regional, behind‑the‑meter installations so ranchers and power producers can see the equipment operating in real conditions,” Krause said. “While interconnection timelines are long, these projects allow us to build momentum as we connect with developers and ranches on utility‑scale pipeline.”
Read more: Sunrun + NRG launch a virtual power plant to ease Texas power demand
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Environment
Tesla rental fleet that bought into Elon Musk’s self-driving lies goes bankrupt due to depreciation
Dutch leasing company Mistergreen, known for its “Tesla only” fleet and bold bets on a future of autonomous robotaxis, is reportedly facing bankruptcy. The company’s financial collapse highlights the danger of buying into Elon Musk’s claims that Tesla vehicles would become “appreciating assets”—a prediction that has faced a harsh reality check in the used EV market.
According to reports from Europe, the Dutch Tesla-only car rental firm Mistergreen has wiped out its bondholders and is selling off its operations.
Mistergreen had built its entire business model around the premise of operating a fleet of Tesla vehicles that would not only hold their value but eventually generate revenue as robotaxis.
Instead, the company has been forced to write down millions in fleet value as Tesla aggressively cut new car prices over the last two years, pulling the rug out from under used EV prices, and never delivered on its promise of consumer vehicles becoming robotaxis.
Back in 2019, Elon Musk famously claimed that Tesla vehicles were now “appreciating assets” because of their Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability. He stated:
“I think the most profound thing is that if you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying an appreciating asset – not a depreciating asset.”
He even went so far as to suggest that a Tesla Model 3 could be worth $100,000 to $200,000 as a revenue-generating robotaxi. Mistergreen bought into that claim and was essentially a leveraged bet on this exact scenario.
They wrote their annual report in 2022:
Our focus is driven by the fact that Tesla’s electric vehicles are currently the highest quality electric vehicles on the market (in terms of battery quality, software updates, efficiency and range, charging network and speed), their hardware and software are prepared for future self-driving cars, and the quality and range of the Tesla (supercharger) charging network is superior. As a result, there is a significant market demand for Tesla’s and we anticipate that Tesla’s will have better residual value in the future due to the good quality of the Tesla’s currently on the market.
However, as we discussed in an article earlier this year about Elon Musk’s biggest lie, the reality has been the exact opposite. Tesla vehicles have depreciated faster than the industry average, exacerbated by Tesla’s own decision to slash prices to maintain demand and by the fact that it never delivered on its promise that software updates would make its consumer vehicles autonomous without supervision.
At its peak, Mistergreen had a fleet of over 4,000 Tesla vehicles, which is impressive, but it meant that it was hit even harder by the depreciation.
For buyers, a cheaper Tesla is great news. For owners or leasing companies holding thousands of them on their books, with high residual-value guarantees, it’s a death sentence.
Mistergreen had issued bonds to buy the Tesla vehicles, but it hasn’t been able to repay them since last year. It’s unclear how much of investors’ money has been wiped out by the bet, but it is in the tens of millions of dollars.
A couple of Dutch, Belgian, and German leasing companies will purchase the remaining fleet.
Electrek reached out to CEO Florian Minderop and co-founder Mark Schreurs for comments, but we didn’t hear back by the time of publishing.
Electrek’s Take
They believed Elon and they lost tens of millions of dollars worth of investors’ money for it.
We have been saying for years that while FSD is impressive, there’s no evidence that it can reach level 4 autonomy in consumer vehicles. Banking on it turning cars into appreciating robotaxis in the near term is financial suicide.
Musk has been promising “1 million robotaxis by the end of the year” since 2020. It’s now late 2025, and while we have seen progress, we only have a small pilot program in a geo-fenced area in Texas under constant supervision, and certainly don’t have a fleet of appreciating assets.
If you bought a Tesla for $50,000 in 2022 expecting it to be worth $100,000 today, you are likely disappointed. If you bought 4,000 of them with borrowed money, you are Mistergreen.
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Kia is offering generous discounts on its EVs with low finance rates and thousands in savings across its entire lineup.
What deals is Kia currently running on its EVs?
After launching a promotion in the US offering over $10,000 off the EV6, EV9, and Niro EV this month, Kia is now extending the savings overseas.
Kia introduced a New Year’s offer in the UK on Tuesday, offering savings across its entire range, including electric vehicles.
The new deal offers generous finance deposit contributions (FDC) of up to £3,000 ($4,000) toward all EV3 models, plus the EV4 GT-Line and GT-Line S trims. A £1,500 ($2,000) FDC is available toward the EV4 Fastback (sedan), EV5, EV6, EV6 GT, EV9, and EV9 GT. The EV4 Air grade is available with a £1,000 ($1,300) FDC.
Kia is also offering a low 3.9% APR across its entire EV lineup, considerably lower than the 5.9% APR for the new Sportage and the 7.9% APR for the Picanto, K4, Niro PHEV, and Sorento.
And that’s not all. Current Kia drivers looking to upgrade can save an extra £1,000 ($1,300) with the “Kia EV Finance Upgrade” loyalty incentive.
The New Year’s EV deals run from December 17, 2025, to March 31, 2026. Kia is also offering two years of free service on all electric models through its “Discover Your Kia EV” campaign, available on all EV3, EV4, EV4 Fastback, EV5, EV6, EV9, and PV5 Passenger grades and variants.
On Friday, the EV4 and PV5 Passenger became the brand’s first vehicle eligible for the UK’s Electric Car Grant. Buyers can now earn £1,500 ($2,000) off the on-the-road purchase price for the EV4 Air and PV5 Passenger Essential and Plus trims.
Although not exactly a promotion, Kia launched the EV4 as Canada’s most affordable EV this week. Starting at under $40,000, Kia’s electric sedan (fastback) is even cheaper than the tiny Fiat 500e.
For those in the US, don’t worry, Kia is offering some pretty great year-end deals, including over $10,000 in savings across its entire EV lineup.
The 2025 Kia EV6 and Niro EV are available with up to $11,000 in customer cash, while the larger EV9 is listed with $10,500 in customer cash.
If you’re looking to finance, Kia is offering 0% APR for up to 72 months, plus $3,500 APR Bonus Cash on the EV6 and Niro EV. The three-row Kia EV9 is available with 0% APR for up to 60 months and a $3,000 APR Bonus Cash offer. In the US, Kia’s “New Traditions” sales event runs until January 2, 2026.
Kia’s deals are generous, but its sister company, Hyundai, may have it beat. You can lease a Hyundai IONIQ 5 right now for as low as $189 per month. That’s about as cheap as EV leases get right now.
If you’re wondering what deals are available in your area, you can find local offers using the links below.
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