Faraday Future goes racing in FIA Formula E
Still waiting on that passenger car, though.
Mysterious electric-mobility startup Faraday Future is teaming up with Dragon Racing to go, er, racing.
Faraday has yet to unveil a passenger car, but it's doing plenty of other things in the meantime. It's been applying for manufacturer plates, gaining approval to test self-driving cars in California and it can now add FIA Formula E to its resume.
There are two new teams coming to Formula E's third season. The first is Jaguar, which is using Formula E as its home base in its return to motorsport. The second is Faraday Future, which is in a technical partnership with Dragon Racing, creating the cleverly named Faraday Future Dragon Racing team.
Formula E is an all-electric racing series. The race lasts about an hour, and drivers swap cars halfway through -- it's easier than trying to swap batteries, after all. Fans can vote for their favorite drivers, and the winners will receive an extra 100 kilojoules of energy to use as a boost. Yeah, that last part is a little campy.
In season one, all teams were forced to use the same car and the same powertrain. That changed in the second season, which allowed manufacturers to build their own motors, inverters, cooling systems and transmissions. In season three, nine different constructors will have their own powertrains, including Jaguar, Mahindra, Renault and Penske.
Faraday Future's wider, um, future remains to be seen. It's already staked out land for its facilities, and it's received a fair number of tax breaks and positive press, but the only vehicle we've seen from this Chinese-backed company is FFZERO1, a fantastical supercar concept. We've been told a passenger car is on the way, but we haven't seen much to support that outside of tangential moves such as applying for manufacturer plates.
