News
Will Faraday Future’s FF 91 ever see production without a factory?
Faraday Future finally took the wraps off its planned production car, named FF 91, last night at CES 2017. What the public finally saw was a low slung, four passenger crossover style vehicle that is intended to compete with the Tesla Model X.
The California-based electric car startup says the car will utilize an industry leading 130 kWh battery that’s capable of driving 378 miles on a single charge. Powered by three electric motors — one in front and two at the rear — FF 91’s all wheel drive system will be capable of blasting off a 0-60 mph time of 2.39 seconds, making it the world’s quickest electric vehicle.
The battery, which Faraday Future claims has the highest energy density in the industry, is supplied by LG Chem. Pete Savagian, vice president of propulsion engineering at Faraday, says the FF 91 is equipped for 200 kW fast charging and can charge at a rate of 500 miles per hour.
The rear doors are hinged at the rear to provide ease of access to the interior. The doors are fitted with radar sensors that protect them from damage from cars or objects parked nearby. Those sensors also are part of the advanced self-driving system built into the car. Rear seating is said to be spacious and sumptuous.
Those are the specs but specs don’t sell cars. People buy on emotion and justify their decision later with facts. The FF 91 is an emotional car in a way that the equally capable Lucid Air is not. The Lucid sedan looks like a very nice Audi. That’s not a bad thing; it just means it doesn’t have a lot of visual excitement. No car appeals to every taste, of course, but the FF 91 does have curb appeal. It is visually attractive and mimics the body lines of BMW’s i3 and i8 — thoroughly modern without being too bizarre.
Richard Kim, Faraday Future’s head of design, says much of the car was designed using virtual reality technology. “If you want to have the most progressive, forward thinking vehicle design, you have to have use the most progressive and forward thinking methodologies,” Kim told Automotive News during a tour of the company’s headquarters in Gardena, California late last year.
Faraday Future says owners will be assigned an FFID — a personal identification code that will allow any Faraday Future car to configure itself to the personal preferences of the owner. That raises a significant point. Will there ever be enough Faraday Future cars on the road to make FFID relevant? The company is said to have serious financial difficulties. Work on its factory in North Las Vegas has been shut down for almost two months and senior company executives have left the company in the past few weeks.
Not to worry, Nick Sampson, senior vice president of R&D and engineering, told the audience Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Brimming with confidence, he assured those in attendance that Faraday Future is in the middle of a “multifaceted disruption” that will “reformat the auto industry.” Then he added, “Despite all the naysayers and the skeptics, we will persist,” before adding that the company’s “clean sheet” gives it an advantage over traditional automakers. Maybe so. But with the first cars scheduled to be delivered in 2018 and no factory yet in existence, there are plenty of skeptics.
Are Faraday Future and the FF 91 ready for prime time? Interested parties can reserve a car now or pay a $5,000 fee to secure a “priority reservation” for one of 300 “Alliance Edition” cars. With the company teetering on the edge of financial collapse, the CES reveal is seen by many as a Hail Mary event. If the reaction to the FF 91 is positive, new investors may be brought on board. But without fresh funds, it is hard to see how the company can survive long enough to be part of CES 2018.
News
Tesla dispels reports of ‘sales suspension’ in California
“This was a “consumer protection” order about the use of the term “Autopilot” in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
Tesla has dispelled reports that it is facing a thirty-day sales suspension in California after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) issued a penalty to the company after a judge ruled it “misled consumers about its driver-assistance technology.”
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the California DMV was planning to adopt the penalty but decided to put it on ice for ninety days, giving Tesla an opportunity to “come into compliance.”
Tesla enters interesting situation with Full Self-Driving in California
Tesla responded to the report on Tuesday evening, after it came out, stating that this was a “consumer protection” order that was brought up over its use of the term “Autopilot.”
The company said “not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem,” yet a judge and the DMV determined it was, so they want to apply the penalty if Tesla doesn’t oblige.
However, Tesla said that its sales operations in California “will continue uninterrupted.”
It confirmed this in an X post on Tuesday night:
This was a “consumer protection” order about the use of the term “Autopilot” in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.
— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) December 17, 2025
The report and the decision by the DMV and Judge involved sparked outrage from the Tesla community, who stated that it should do its best to get out of California.
One X post said California “didn’t deserve” what Tesla had done for it in terms of employment, engineering, and innovation.
Tesla has used Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for years, but it did add the term “(Supervised)” to the end of the FSD suite earlier this year, potentially aiming to protect itself from instances like this one.
This is the first primary dispute over the terminology of Full Self-Driving, but it has undergone some scrutiny at the federal level, as some government officials have claimed the suite has “deceptive” naming. Previous Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was vocally critical of the use of the name “Full Self-Driving,” as well as “Autopilot.”
News
New EV tax credit rule could impact many EV buyers
We confirmed with a Tesla Sales Advisor that any current orders that have the $7,500 tax credit applied to them must be completed by December 31, meaning delivery must take place by that date. However, it is unclear at this point whether someone could still claim the credit when filing their tax returns for 2025 as long as the order reflects an order date before September 30.
Tesla owners could be impacted by a new EV tax credit rule, which seems to be a new hoop to jump through for those who benefited from the “extension,” which allowed orderers to take delivery after the loss of the $7,500 discount.
After the Trump Administration initiated the phase-out of the $7,500 EV tax credit, many were happy to see the rules had been changed slightly, as deliveries could occur after the September 30 cutoff as long as orders were placed before the end of that month.
However, there appears to be a new threshold that EV buyers will have to go through, and it will impact their ability to get the credit, at least at the Point of Sale, for now.
Delivery must be completed by the end of the year, and buyers must take possession of the car by December 31, 2025, or they will lose the tax credit. The U.S. government will be closing the tax credit portal, which allows people to claim the credit at the Point of Sale.
🚨UPDATE: $7,500 Tax Credit Portal “Closes By End of Year”.
This is bad news for pending Tesla buyers (MYP) looking to lock in the $7,500 Tax Credit.
“it looks like the portal closes by end of the year so there be no way for us to guarantee the funds however, we will try our… pic.twitter.com/LnWiaXL30k
— DennisCW | wen my L (@DennisCW_) December 15, 2025
We confirmed with a Tesla Sales Advisor that any current orders that have the $7,500 tax credit applied to them must be completed by December 31, meaning delivery must take place by that date.
However, it is unclear at this point whether someone could still claim the credit when filing their tax returns for 2025 as long as the order reflects an order date before September 30.
If not, the order can still go through, but the buyer will not be able to claim the tax credit, meaning they will pay full price for the vehicle.
This puts some buyers in a strange limbo, especially if they placed an order for the Model Y Performance. Some deliveries have already taken place, and some are scheduled before the end of the month, but many others are not expecting deliveries until January.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk takes latest barb at Bill Gates over Tesla short position
Bill Gates placed a massive short bet against Tesla of ~1% of our total shares, which might have cost him over $10B by now
Elon Musk took his latest barb at former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates over his short position against the company, which the two have had some tensions over for a number of years.
Gates admitted to Musk several years ago through a text message that he still held a short position against his sustainable car and energy company. Ironically, Gates had contacted Musk to explore philanthropic opportunities.
Elon Musk explains Bill Gates beef: He ‘placed a massive bet on Tesla dying’
Musk said he could not take the request seriously, especially as Gates was hoping to make money on the downfall of the one company taking EVs seriously.
The Tesla frontman has continued to take shots at Gates over the years from time to time, but the latest comment came as Musk’s net worth swelled to over $600 billion. He became the first person ever to reach that threshold earlier this week, when Tesla shares increased due to Robotaxi testing without any occupants.
Musk refreshed everyone’s memory with the recent post, stating that if Gates still has his short position against Tesla, he would have lost over $10 billion by now:
Bill Gates placed a massive short bet against Tesla of ~1% of our total shares, which might have cost him over $10B by now
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2025
Just a month ago, in mid-November, Musk issued his final warning to Gates over the short position, speculating whether the former Microsoft frontman had still held the bet against Tesla.
“If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon,” Musk said. This came in response to The Gates Foundation dumping 65 percent of its Microsoft position.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sends final warning to Bill Gates over short position
Musk’s involvement in the U.S. government also drew criticism from Gates, as he said that the reductions proposed by DOGE against U.S.A.I.D. were “stunning” and could cause “millions of additional deaths of kids.”
“Gates is a huge liar,” Musk responded.
It is not known whether Gates still holds his Tesla short position.
Tesla dispels reports of ‘sales suspension’ in California
New EV tax credit rule could impact many EV buyers
