Faraday Future’s New EV Is More Chinese Than a Fortune Cookie
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
If you've been following the electric vehicle circus for as long as I have, you know that the very moment you dare to think you've seen it all, it's guaranteed a company will pop up with something so delightfully curious you can't help but lean in for a closer look. Enter Faraday Future, a company that has had a bit of a bumpy start. Their first car, the FF91, has been a masterclass in not selling very many cars. I believe the grand total since 2023 is 16. Sixteen! I think my neighbor has more cars than that.
But you can't keep a good, or at least a persistent, idea down. Faraday is back, and this time they're tackling a segment of the American market that's as barren as a lunar landscape: the electric minivan. They call it the FX Super One, an "MPV" or Multi-Purpose Vehicle, which is just a fancy way of saying minivan without admitting you're driving a minivan. In a world where the VW ID.Buzz is basically wandering the EV minivan desert alone, this could be the oasis we've been waiting for.
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
The all-singing new minivan from FF isn't just any old box on wheels. The FX Super One has a party trick, and it's called the "AI F.A.C.E.," which stands for Front AI Communication Ecosystem. In plain English, they've replaced the grille with a massive programmable LED screen. You can make it display atmospheric designs, videos, or, and this is the best part, giant animated emoji faces. Finally, a way to show the world you're feeling cheerful without having to resort to smiling yourself. There's just one tiny catch: it only works when the car is parked. Brilliant.
The marketing department clearly had a field day with the thesaurus, because the FX Super One is drowning in buzzwords. We're told it has an "AI Agent 6×4 Architecture" and is an "EAI Embodied Intelligence AI" vehicle. Look, I love technology, but this sounds like they just threw every tech term from the last five years into a blender. If this van had launched in 2000, it would have been the ".com-Minivan." In 2015, the "Blockchain-Mobile." In 2025, it's all about AI, apparently.
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
Putting the digital face and word salad aside, what is it actually like? On paper, it's quite the luxury liner. Sized like a Cadillac Escalade but with a longer wheelbase, it promises a plush ride. You can get it with two or three rows, seating four, six, or seven people. The options list includes zero-gravity captain's chairs that fully recline, a 17.3-inch entertainment screen, a slide-out fridge, and even a top-tier "GOAT edition" for that full celebrity-on-the-run experience.
But the story, as all the "too-good-too-be-true" stories do, takes a turn. After a bit of digging, it turns out this "revolutionary American EV" isn't quite as American as apple pie. In fact, it's about as American as my cheap Chinese LED flashlight. The FX Super One is, for all intents and purposes, a rebadged and slightly modified Wey Gaoshan 9, a premium minivan from one of China's biggest automakers, Great Wall Motor (GWM). The interiors are identical, right down to the buttons and decorative trim.
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
So how is Faraday Future planning to sell a Chinese car in the US without getting hammered by tariffs? Simple. It's the automotive equivalent of IKEA furniture. The cars will be shipped from China in what's known as Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) kits. The bodies will arrive already welded and painted. Then, in a facility in California, workers will bolt on the engine, wheels, seats, and, of course, that magnificent light-up face, which is also sourced from a Chinese supplier. Presto! "Assembled in America."
When you look at the specs, the family resemblance is undeniable. Faraday Future claims a 130-inch wheelbase. The Wey Gaoshan 9 has a 128.9-inch wheelbase. I suspect someone's rounding up for marketing purposes because stretching a car's frame by 1.1 inches is no small feat.
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
There will be two powertrain options - one will be the usual all-electric. The other powertrain isn't fully electric, it's a range-extender, pairing a 1.5-liter gasoline engine with two electric motors for a combined 452 horsepower and all-wheel drive. The 51.55 kWh battery, supplied by CATL, gives you about 125 miles of pure electric range before the little gasoline generator kicks in.
All sounds good on paper, but then there's the man behind Faraday Future, Mr. Jia Yueting. Once hailed as the "Chinese Elon Musk," he later filed for personal bankruptcy in the US with debts over $3.6 billion. While he seems to have sorted his affairs stateside, his financial credibility back in China is a popular topic for memes. Having him at the helm is a bit like finding out your cruise ship captain has a history of sinking boats. It doesn't fill you with confidence.
Image Credit: Faraday Future.
What are we to make of this whole thing? The FX Super One is a Chinese range-extender minivan, shipped in pieces to California, re-branded with an emoji face and a blizzard of AI buzzwords, and sold by a company with a shaky history. The price is expected to start around $70,000 and climb into Escalade territory.
Honestly? The whole project is fascinating in its audacity. Will it succeed? My deeply ingrained skepticism says probably not. And yet I can't help but hope it does. The US market desperately needs more electric family haulers, and if it takes a bizarre, trans-pacific venture like this to shake things up, then I say bring it on. At the very least, it won't be boring.
