I don’t profess to know tons about either Nikola Tesla or Michael Faraday. I know that Tesla invented alternating current as well as possibly creating things like wireless electricity and even perpetual motion (depending on who you listen to). He also invented the Tesla coil, which now has become more of a cool way to do lightening shows than anything else nowadays. Meanwhile, Faraday created the Faraday cage, which ironically keeps you from getting killed by the Tesla coils, and apparently keeps hackers from scanning your credit cards if you have a special wallet. Ya… I’m pretty ignorant about this stuff, but that’s not the point. The point is that a new car company, named after Faraday, just popped up on the scene with plans to build a billion dollar car factory aimed at taking Tesla Motor head on.
This is something I do have a lot of interest in. I have been eyeing Teslas for the last couple of years and have been drooling over the prospect of possibly getting their consumer price friendly model when it hits in 2017. That said, I’m also open to any great company that could come along and do the same thing or better at a competitive price. I am not saying that Faraday Future is going to do that, but the more companies that enter the space (especially ones that aren’t part of the existing car company oligarchy), the better chance we have of a viable alternative fuel car that looks great and isn’t a complete piece of crap on the road.
There’s not much known about Faraday Future right now, just that it’s owned by a company that is controlled by a Chinese Billionaire with a deep love of Steve Jobs. We also know that the company has been quietly poaching Tesla employees to help them build their new vehicle. Additionally, they are connected to several former execs from BMW, Tesla, GM, Ford, and Fiat.
The billion dollar plant’s location will be in either California, Georgia, Louisiana, or Nevada, and will be formally announced in the next few weeks. They have publicly stated that they plan to compete directly with Tesla in the luxury space. I can only hope that some of that will trickle down to the rest of us in the middle class.