Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. (FFAI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome. I am John Shilling, the PR and Communications Director at FF. I want to welcome you all to FF's second brand strategy in global automotive industry bridge launch event. I'm joined today by a number of FF's executive leadership team, including FF Global CEO, Matthias Aydt; FF Founder and Chief Product and User Ecosystem Officer, YT Jia; and FF Vice President of Product and Corporate Strategy, Max Ma, who will further present the details of FF's second brand strategy and our global automotive industry bridge strategy, including what they mean for the EV marketplace as well as the interim achievements made by the company this year. Leading up to today's event, we conducted a 2-week online survey called Everyone's AI EV, You Decide, which gathered input from a significant number of participants worldwide and will ultimately help us build and sell better EV products for our users. We will also share the results of the first phase of the survey during today's presentation. At the end of today's presentation, we will have a Q&A session where our executives will try and answer your questions live as the last part of today's event. Over 80% of the questions were collected through the online survey. And we also welcome media and investors who have joined via Zoom today to type your questions live. Our executives will do their best to try and answer them. Today's event contains forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. In particular, our plans related to our second brand strategy are dependent on our ability to secure the related necessary capital. A discussion of risks and risk factors is included in the presentation materials available on the Investor Relations section of our website and are detailed in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. Thank you again for your time and attention today. And now let's welcome FF Global CEO, Matthias Aydt, who will provide an update on FF's business and explain the background and reasoning behind the second brand strategy. Now over to you, Matthias.

Thank you, John. and thank you all for joining us today for the announcement of our second brand and an overview of our Global Automotive Industry Bridge Strategy. This new brand is integral to our overall growth strategy, which includes our global automotive industry bridge strategy. Our approach aims to integrate global automotive components and supply chains into the U.S., energizing the U.S. battery AI EV industry and offering more diverse and improved product options like the range extended AI EV. Before diving into the specifics of our new brand, let me update you on our progress at Faraday Future in 2024, highlighting key milestones and our strategic plans. During the last 12 months, we transformed the company from a project-driven organization to an operation-driven organization with heavy weights on cost optimization, cost control, quality stabilization and user operation. Earlier this year, we held our first Investor Community Day to showcase our technology, team and commitment to innovation and stockholder value. It was a tremendous success, and we will do more of this moving forward. The FFIE factory remains a crucial asset offering the potential for full production capabilities and potential collaboration with other OEMs. We also announced in early September that we have regained compliance with NASDAQ listing requirements, meeting all continued listing criteria. Product excellence is key. We are enhancing the FF 91 2.0 product and technology, focusing on AI advancements, including the application of generative AI and mobility. Since Q2 of 2024, we have begun producing vehicle bodies and the assembly of some of our interior components in-house, reducing costs significantly as interior costs have been halved. Our production and quality control systems are maturing. Notably, our partnership with Master Investment Group, led by Sheikh Abdullah Qassimi from Ras Al-Khaima in the UAE marks a significant milestone in our regional expansion. Incremental funding will support our Global Automotive Industry Bridge Strategy and entry into the Middle East. Earlier this year, we established a sales entity in Dubai, marking a key milestone in our expansion. This entry into the Middle East supports our third pole strategy complementing our dual home markets of the U.S. and China. The expansion builds on the FF brands introduction to the UAE in 2023. We continue to engage potential partners in the region for strategic financing, business development and sales. Tin Mok, our Head of UAE, just successfully finished the business registration in Ras Al-Khaimah, and we are moving into a first office and engineering workshop area, and we plan to have a team there in October. We are constantly focused on cost control and expense reduction at FF. Operating expenses and losses from operations have improved significantly compared to the previous year. Looking ahead, I'm excited about our future with our talented team, I am confident in our ability to achieve and surpass our goals. The FF 91 2.0 remains unparalleled. And with our new brand, we have the potential to reach a broader consumer base. Just to let everybody know, we will deliver our next FF 91 2.0 Futuristic Alliance tonight at a special venue in Hollywood. Stay tuned. Our next step is a significant strategic upgrade. Alongside developing FF's high-end brand and subject to securing necessary funding, we will leverage a bridge strategy to add a second brand business. I would like to share with you everyone in the background behind FF launching a second brand. Some of our followers may note that at the founding of FF, we had a plan to establish a dual brand strategy. FF with our FF 91 2.0 AI EV targets, the Ultimate AI TechLuxury market, while the second brand will be aimed at a mass market with lower-cost EV options here in the U.S. Due to our strategic approach, we first focused on building the FF brand and establishing its premium position before moving on to the second brand. With the evolution and transformation of the global automotive industry in recent years, opportunities in the U.S. mass market for AIEVs including industry user demand, partnerships and FF's own strengths have created fertile ground and a historic window for the successful launch of FF second brand. We also recently launched a pre-event survey for the second brand and today's event titled Everyone's AI EV, You Decide with the first phase already successfully concluded. From user feedback, we see that the U.S. EV industry is lagging in several areas. Examples include, extremely low market penetration for new energy vehicles, slow development of supporting infrastructure like charging stations, a lack of complete domestic supply chain, limited product variety, high prices, insufficient market competition and inadequate government support. From an industry opportunity perspective, the U.S. AI EV mass market is a vast blue ocean meaning there is ample opportunity for the right products and the range extended AI EV market is almost untapped. Also, the U.S. is the birthplace of the global EV industry. According to public data, its new energy vehicles penetration rate is less than 20% in Q1 compared to China is more than 50% in August, showing that there is plenty of opportunity for us. From the user demand perspective, U.S. consumers are eager for AIEVs that offer an excellent price-to-performance ratio, especially range extended AIEVs priced under $30,000. Currently, American users have almost no option in this price range that provide the electric and AI-powered experience they seek, which is precisely our opportunity. As the CEO of an American-based global company, I have to admit that China has already surpassed the U.S. in terms of product power, competitiveness and product structure in the AI EV market. The range extended AI EV market in China has seen explosive growth, striking the perfect balance between intelligence and range. Meanwhile, there's almost no range extended AI EV product available in the U.S., coupled with high domestic supply chain costs, under development -- underdeveloped charging infrastructure and insufficient competition. This has created a significant gap between the U.S. and other global markets presenting a major opportunity for FF to launch its second brand and global automotive bridge strategy. More importantly, we aim to use this strategy to explore the untapped AI EV mass market in the U.S. help enhance the global competitiveness of the American automotive industry and contribute to the growth of both battery AI EVs and range extended AI EVs ultimately expanding global market share. What's more, FF and the second brand will mutually empower each other, creating a complete AI EV ecosystem covering both premium and mass markets. FF 6x4 product and technology architecture, domestic manufacturing experience and brand strength are assets that the second brand can inherit. Meanwhile, the second brands large-scale sales potential and feedback into FF significantly enhancing FFs technical manufacturing, supply chain and user ecosystem capabilities and helping FF reduce costs and improve efficiencies. The core logic of FF second brand and bridge strategy is to create an industrial bridge fostering close collaboration within the global supply chain to develop high-performance cost-effective B AI-EV and RE AI-EV products for the U.S. market. In summary, the launch of FF second brand is driven by multiple factors, including market environment, competitive landscape, user demand, corporate strategy and industry adjustments. In fact, it is a necessary move that will bring real value to users, the industry and FF from multiple perspectives. Thank you. Now I would like to welcome YT Jia, his heart beats for our move and adaptation of this strategy.

Thank you, Matthias. Hello, everyone. I'm YT. I am excited to share something that's very important to FF's strategies and unleashing the company's full value. Today, we are unveiling FF's second brand, the product strategy under the innovative ways, we are creating AI EV products with twice the performance at half the price for U.S. users. We also outlined our execution and the launch plans for these exciting new products. 10 years ago, when FF was founded, we had already established a due brand strategy. Back then, the [indiscernible] has vast experience in scaling products for the mass market and achieved a remarkable success. We have been growing this brand for 10 years. So what is a name, we are calling it Faraday X or FX for short. Our brand slogan for our Faraday X is Co-create an AI EV for everyone. Our slogan interpretation is that through FX 5 initiatives such as open source, open platform, user definition, co-creation and sharing. We will empower the 30,000 model with core technologies used in the 300,000 FF 91. Our goal is to develop AI EVs that make the Ultimate AI TechLuxury accessible, delivery in products with twice the performance and half the price, and make them affordable for everyone. Faraday X as our second brand inherits the DNA of Faraday Future while also taking on a distinct mission. Let's take a look at this chart. The goal of the FF brand is to accelerate the adoption of AI EVs in the U.S., to bridge the global auto industry and to integrate high-quality and cost-effective supply chain from around the world, including China. By doing so, FX aims to become the Toyota of the AI EV area.

Thanks, YT. The inspiration for the FX brand is deeply rooted in FFs unique genes and it also perfectly reflects the logic of the math function, Y equals FX where X is the independent variable, F represents the corresponding rules and Y represents the final outcome. For the FX brand, X represents our users, partners, the industry and all the more limitless possibilities. F not only stands for FF, but also for the mutually empowering open source collaboration between FF and the X as we co-create value. This synergy between F and X will bring out phenomenal products, generating rewards that everyone can share. As it's clearly shown in the chart here, FX is a fundamental part to FFs dual-brand strategy. It inherits the FF genes of open source and open access co-creation sharing, while it also takes on a distinct mission. Let me introduce FX's target audience and brand value. FX is born for the hard-working people who find perseverance in mundane life. The people who work hard and love their life. We hope to make it possible for everyone to own an AI EV with an extreme price experience ratio, achieving AI equality and time equality. In this way, we help ensure that everyone when traveling from point A to point B can enjoy the same luxurious AI experience. At the same time, we help users balance family and personal life as well as work and leisure. All new brands need a logo and much like a unique and well-received FF logo, FX needs a new logo, one that is unique and inspired by the genesis of the FX brand. So today, in the spirit of co-creation and sharing, we invite you to join us in setting another industry standard for logo design. I'm thrilled to announce the launch of our global logo co-creation initiative. Please stay tuned for more detailed information on this unique opportunity to help us design our new logo. Now back over to you, YT.

Meanwhile, we are also proud to launch Faraday X AI EV Inc. in the U.S. This entity, we will be responsible for driving FX overall strategy and execution independently. Next, let's dive into FX product strategy and now you are all very interested. The FX model for vehicle production anchors on 5 key initiatives, open source and open platform, user definition, co-creation and sharing, global auto industry bridge strategy, creating the new category, RE AI EV, leveraging FFs legacy to empower FX and the light and sweet premium quality. With this approach, we are inviting our users to participate throughout the entire life cycle of FF products. Together, we will create a product that belongs to everyone, to fund and own by everyone, create your very own EV with extreme price experience ratio, with minimum capital investment at a maximum speed so that everyone shares the value that the FX brand and its products create. The U.S. is the birthplace of the electric vehicle industry. and is regarded a pioneer in the field of new energy vehicles. Yet, why is the adoption rate of new energy vehicles in the U.S., only around 18% in first Q this year? With the number in China reached [indiscernible] as of August. In 2023, about 50 million new vehicles were sold in the U.S. So, why is there hardly a quality AI EV available for under $30,000? 2 weeks ago, we launched everyone's AIEV, You Decide co-creation service. The initial phase of our first initiative. As of September 19, we received an exciting response with nearly 10,000 survey submissions. The results have been insightful, highlighting 3 significant gaps and strong demand in the U.S. market, apart from battery electric vehicles. First, EV is in the $20,000 to $50,000 range, especially those price between $20,000 and $30,000. range-extended EV RE-EV technology and models. Third, intelligent cabin or the third AI space. And I'll have the floor for Max Ma.

Hi, everyone. My name is Max Ma, and I'm responsible for the FX brand. Today, we move into the second phase of our Everyone's AI EV, You Decide campaign, unveiling the FX for [indiscernible] definition co-creation tool. We firmly believe that the true co-creation happens when everyone is involved in defining, developing and testing. Only then can we build a car that truly belongs to all? Can we achieve our targeted co-create an AI EV for everyone? And can we ensure everyone shares the value FX creates? Let's take a look at our co-creation tool and then scan the QR code or visit our website to participate. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun defining our own product. Well, to express our appreciation, we also have prepared exciting rewards for you. Everyone has the chance to become an FX Co-Corporation Officer, gain access to vehicle purchase incentives or even win contribution awards up to $10,000. This is on our website or app for more details. Besides battery electric vehicles, the second key initiative is to create an entirely new category, the RE-AI EV. We're aiming to solve the pain points of U.S. AI EV users had on filling a significant gap in the American automotive market and seizing a historic opportunity for industry transformation. Together with our potential partners, we'll look to set sales into the untapped blue ocean market. Our analysis supported by survey findings suggest that range-extended electric vehicles are poised have the potential to overtake plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the market. The global automotive industry bridge is the third major initiative. By integrating global supply chains, including China's known for their low cost and high quality, we aim to develop AI EV products that offer exceptional price experience ratios. It is also a crucial prerequisite to FX success. The fourth initiative will tap into the spire momentum that FF has built over the decade and unleash the potential through FX for concentrated breakthrough. Subject to securing necessary funding through the FX brand and its products, we could drive explosive growth and complement and enhance the strategy in ecosystem. For the fifth of FX product strategy is light and swift premium quality. FX has the potential to be light in capital assets, sales and marketing, and also swift in decision-making, execution, production and iteration. Based on the 5 initiatives, I believe our FX brand will achieve great success. In the past few months, the team has reached great achievements. I'd like to invite YT and Matthias and our teams on the stage to share those exciting news.

Standing with me are the dedicated core members of the FX project team, who have been pushing for and witnessing every step of progress. In the past period, we have efficiently collaborated with multiple OEMs on the signing of agreements and the implementation plans across areas such as product, technology, research and development, engineering, supply chain, compliance, production, sales and after sales, achieving highly effective results. Today, I'm excited to announce that FX has established relationships with 4 OEMs having already entered into 2 strategic framework agreements and 2 memorandum of understanding as we are finalizing definitive agreements with each. Now we fully accelerate the next phase of work for FX. I understand your eagerness for details but due to the nature of these collaborations and the confidential nature with our partners, we will share more specifics as we reach significant milestones. Rest assured, we are committed to transparency and will keep you informed as progress unfolds. Handing over to YT again.

Like Matthias just said, we have efficiently collaborated with 4 OEM bridge participants on implementation plan. Across various areas, including contract signing, product development, technology, R&D, engineering, supply chain, production, compliance, sales and after sales service, achieving significant results. Moving forward, we will work closely with our OEM bridge participants to push for next phases, ensuring that the second brand products are launched as soon as possible according to plan. Now we move on to the most exciting announcement of today's event, the launch plan for FX first batch of products, staying true to our brand and product philosophy of twice of the -- twice the performance at half the price. We will be rolling out to hit the models in the first phase step-by-step. The first week is FX 5. Priced between $20,000 and $30,000, a large base supported AI EV for everyone. The product slogan for the FX 5 is a Co-create your AI EV with extreme price experience ratio, aimed at becoming the first AI EV for every hard-working person, helping them balance both work and life. The second vehicle is FX 6 priced between $30,000 and $50,000, an extra large luxury AI EV for family. The product slogan for the FX 6 is Co-create your AI home on the road, that would to be the top choice for families seeking a mobile AI space offering the perfect blend of personnel and family needs. Both the FX 5 and FX 6 models offer 2 types of powertrains and propulsions, range-extended AI EV, RE-AI EV and other AI EV, B-AI EV. Here, I'm excited to announce that we are targeting for the first vehicle to roll off the line by the end of 2025. I believe by working tirelessly with our bridge partners, we will achieve this goal. How can we turn FX 5 and FX 6 into sales heads? The answer is our unique user ecosystem. Consisting of 3 parts: user acquisition, co-creation and user operation. User acquisition is based on light models and fully online direct sales system. We will build an innovative approach with light assets as marketing, asset sales and co-creation. Our goal is to transform products heads into sales heads. We believe that the FX brand and products will deliver huge value to our users, partners, the industry, FF and its investors. For the industry, FX will strive to become an accelerator for the growth of the AI EV sector in the U.S. For our users, we will make it possible for everyone to own an AI EV co-created with the ultimate price performance ratio. For our partners, FX will collaborate with our select chain partners to tap into the vast blue ocean opportunities in the U.S. AI EV market. At the same time, for FF and FF investors, FX will see the historical opportunity of AI EV industry development. With large-scale production models, FF will see explosive growth in the sales revenue and the cash flow, while greatly enhance the cost control capabilities. The massive amount of data will also support the financial growth in our AI transformer large model capabilities. Together, this will create huge value for our investors. Over to Max.

Thanks, YT. As we have discussed earlier, the AI EV era has arrived. However, the penetration of the overall clean energy vehicles, including battery, electric vehicles and hybrids are still below 20%, where the BEV accounts for about only 8%. We also mentioned same major pain points resulting in the current situation. Besides the average $10,000 higher cost of EV over the gasoline cars, and insufficient or inconvenient charging infrastructure, which caused the range anxiety, there are 2 more pain points on the intelligence side. Well, except for FF 91, we really haven't seen any intelligent cabins, which changed the nature of the cars being from a tool of transportation. On the other hand, except for Tesla, there is really not many choices for autonomous driving. Here are our solutions. And let me talk a little bit on each of those. First, to build an AI EV with extreme price experience ratio, it is a very hard job already. So why could FX achieve it? Well, we'll take many innovative steps while we're leveraging the existing expertise and resources of FF and our new partners. Engaging our users into product definition is very critical. The campaign, Everyone's AI EV, You Decide, will help us to get a successful product from day 1, which also help to streamlining the investment. For R&D, FX will be supported by the AI software and Internet technology that FF has accumulated for 10 years. At the same time, our OEM and supplier partner will support very much on the mechanical platform. Global supply chain is a key to bring the cost significantly down for reaching the extreme price experience ratio. And lastly, FX existing advanced manufacturing facility, the FFIE factory could be easily upgraded for expansion. While we continue to produce the FF 91 at the same time. Coming back to the great new product category, the range extended AI EV side. Well, not only has the technology been further improved to match the demands under AI EV era, the intelligence allows also the future, which enhance the technological advantages and solve existing issues. The advantages of this exciting AI EV platform are very obvious. You could now charge anywhere at any time. The user will not worry anymore if there's a charging station close by. You could choose between electricity or gasoline to obtain the best cost. While the intelligent cabin has been one of my favorite topics. Traditional gasoline cars can really not provide much user experience. Even though you would plug in your iPhone for CarPlay, I am a Tesla user and also a FF 91 user. I can tell very much the difference. In this pricing segment of FX, Tesla is very much a driver-driven car. Having been able to experience the FF 91 for a long time, there's no better passenger experience. And I would like to bring it to FX. So it's easy to conclude, what do we really want for the AI era. It has to be with the AI agents, right? It must enable users to more beside just a transportation. We need to empower more for the driver and driver will become more a passenger and passengers can truly enjoy the time during the ride. For a better user experience, the large space is not avoidable. Hence, you might need a longer wheelbase. And at the end, the quality of your space needs to be aimed very high. All of those have been achieved at the FF 91. Technology-wise, we are kind of integrating this luxury AI and inter technology applied in a $300,000-ish car into a $30,000 FX products. The very last but important aspect is the autonomous driving. We must understand the current challenging market situation so that we can have the right solution for our products. As of today, end-to-end autonomous driving is the mainstream. However, the investment required is now significantly higher. We're seeing in the United States that the leader of this area is investing billions of dollars into such like computing. We're at the sedation of the big gets bigger. The legacy companies, the startups or even the key suppliers will not be able to be in a position to invest or then catch up. So what should FX expect? While the phone industry provides good references, Apple and Android, a closed system versus an open source system. The open source system helped the prosperity and the development of the mobile internet industry. One difference here is that Apple is a closed system and not for open to others or Tesla, as mentioned, to open their systems. Unfortunately, right now, there hasn't been much progress and there has been also concerns and risks around those losing autonomy of the OEMs who might consider to join the partnership or how about we try open source? We believe at this moment, based on either the market competition, the stage of the start-ups, the DNA of the legacy companies, there is not a single company out there who could work on their own to come up with a great user experience on autonomous driving. The open source adopts the vision of value co-creation, benefits co-sharing and allow everyone to save the money, to come up with the standards, to allow all the suppliers, the third parties and to become more focused and also achieve a faster time to market. Instead of everyone investing and knowing it won't bring the best user experience, why can't everyone work together to avoid wasting money and time, to avoid poor product results. It's very much worth thinking. While for the pricing segment of FX, we expect significant higher volume ranging from tens of thousands as a proof of initial success, then going up to hundreds of thousands per year. We plan to leverage FFIE factory in Hanford, California, to reach the volume we have in mind first. While with existing expertise, resources and team experience from FF and our core partners, we are working with full speed and are looking forward to the first vehicle off the line. Now thank you, and back to YT.

With the introduction of the FX brand product strategy and launch plans as well as related business and the initiatives, we are also thrilled to announce the global recruitment of top talent for Faraday X AI EV Inc. We invest you to explore our current opening on the FF website and submit your application today. Upon IPO in 2021, FFAI was our preferred ticker but it only became available last year, and our management team believes it would better reflect our core vision. Today, we are opening the final round of feedback collection. Should we change the stock ticker from FFIE to FFAI? To participate, please click on this link or visit the FF website for more details. We are faced with the historic opportunity in the U.S. AI EV industry. By launching the second brand and fulfilling our new brand strategy, we aim to drive diverse growth in our brand and products. Together, we are not just building a brand but shaping the industry's future. A heartfelt thank you to all of our retail and the institutional investors, partners, suppliers and our users. Your belief in our vision makes all of this possible. Thank you for being a part of this historic journey. Next up is our QA session, please stay in the line.

Thank you, YT, and thank you all for joining us today. That concludes the formal part of our presentation. But as I said earlier, during the meeting, we wanted to have a Q&A session at the very end to answer some of the questions that you have given us throughout the meeting, and some of them were supplied before the meeting started. So I'm joined again with Matthias and Max. And I'm going to read some of the questions and these 2 gentlemen are going to provide the answers. So with that, the first question from one of our guests, where do you intend to manufacture the second brand? Will the new brand qualify for tax incentives? And I think I'll throw this one to Max.

Okay. Well, as I mentioned earlier, we'll probably start off with Hanford, which where we have already existing manufacturing capacity and it's going to be very easy for us to expand to a higher volume. Once we reach the initial success with this product segment, we're seeing going to be absolutely going up to more than [ 100,000 ]. So we are also thinking that Stage 3 or later Stage 2, that we're going to go for a higher volume factory either. But we really want to minimize the investment. So it will be probably in the partnership with other OEMs for local production. And while I see the -- there's a second question there as well.

Yes. So how do you plan to service repairs to the mass market AIEVs considering that there was one of the issues with the premium version?

Yes. I saw that there's new brand quality for the tax incentives that I'll probably just go back for that question. Yes. I think basically, I answered the question already, Hanford is starting. We're going to start off and then the incentive is, I think, is a lot of people want to understand. I think it's very clear for the criteria of the tax incentives, right? You have to -- the criteria says that you have to build in the U.S. Your battery component has to be majority in the U.S. and you have to also get your battery pack build in the U.S., there's also a pricing cap that's kind of giving the guidance of if you -- how you can get those incentives. I think for the FX brand, as long we fulfill those requirements, we should be able to get the tax incentives.

Thank you. Okay. Now we'll go to the next question. How do you plan to service repairs to the mass market AI EVs considering that was one of the issues with the premium version. And I think either Matthias or Max can try to answer this one.

Yes, basically, we are following the same approach as we have in execution for the FF brand. We have a network of companies supporting us. We are in the process of closing these partnerships. And then with that, we will have a dealer network -- not a dealer network and after sales and service network, which supports us with the necessary repairs and aftersales and maintenance. Max, do you want to add something for...

Yes. I think really there's -- our business is really is under the guiding principle of the shared economy and the co-creation, co-sharing. So we're going to have a lot of innovative way. On one hand, we will get a lot of leverage of the existing resources from the after-sales market and how other people have been doing. But also at the same time, there are going to be a lot of innovative way that we can use probably less investment and get a better treatment. I think this is really -- we have this confidence not only the founders previous company has done this very, very successful, but also with the current co-creation program that we have for the FF cars has also already showed the early success. So I think overall, this will be a very good plan that will help the FX to be successful.

Great. Thanks, Max. The next question gets into lower-cost models. Specifically, will there be any lower cost -- cheaper models like an FX 4, cheaper than $20,000. So Max, what do you think about that?

Well, I think this is a very good question. Obviously, when we look at the overall FX strategy, we have been planning for the overall product portfolio. The users have seen the FX 6 and FX 5. So yes, we're leaving room for the FX 4 and others. And we're definitely going to have some good surprise for the users out there. Yes, I'll keep it confidential for now. I'll keep a little bit secret for now. But we'll come back and share more.

Good. Thank you. And I think that kind of segues into the next question that we got in about FX 5 and FX 6. Are they already in progress, the R&D? And can you share more details on that? Where are we I guess, with the status of those 2 products that we announced today?

Right. I think typically, if you look at the whole vehicle program development based on the one process, we have already started with the initial milestones on those, and that's been progressing well. We have an established team to work on those all the way from the product definition side and we're also waiting for a lot of product definition from the users and also the early research and looking to how we're going to conduct this program. So yes, there has been already tangible and a good amount of work has been baked into this and then the team will continue to work heavily on those.

Thank you. I know that we're working on some more questions coming up here. Here we go. What is the biggest problem around EVs that you can think that you'll help solve the next 3 to 5 years? And then I'm going to throw this one over to our CEO, Matthias for an answer.

I think the biggest problem EVs are facing is basically, on one hand, the new players, they have to settle. So as we have and on the other hand, incumbent OEMs seem to struggle really with the paradigm shift moving from an internal combustion engine to the electric propulsion system. And understanding what that means for the architecture of a complete vehicle, what it means for the product definition and the product offering. And I think we can see with the existing EV vehicles coming from incumbent, that there is a huge gap. Looking at the FF 91, even it's potentially not affordable for everybody, but the product we have created delivers exactly what we will transform and translate into the FX products. A product, which is using all the DNA of the company coming from a consumer electronic, having an automotive background, combined that into a melting pot and provide a product, which helps you with all the future automization to enjoy future driving with all the benefits of AI. So from that perspective, I think that is what we are exactly planning to do.

And basically, I would like to add something, basically, all you have seen earlier as the 4 pain points, the current EV market is actually the one we need to address, and that will be addressed in the FX product as well. Great. Thank you.

The next question comes from Albert. How does the second brand and global auto bridge strategy affect shares for shareholders? And I'll give that to either Matthias or Max, whoever wants to answer that one first.

I think it's hard to answer because it would be an investment recommendation. So I'd rather stay away from that and let that to analysts who have been listening to our event today.

Okay.

But obviously, we're all here for success, right, because we're going to do work hard. That's the reason why we think the second brand strategy is a great strategy that the company should adopt.

Exactly. Thank you. Next question comes from MK. Elon Musk is downplaying EV cars -- sorry, Elon Musk is downplaying EV cars and is calling this company, a technology company. How are you defining yourself?

Well, basically, if you look, we have developed completely our own software. We have developed our own ECUs not talking about safety-related ECUs, but all the other ECUs, all the connectivity hardware. The software is structured in a way that it plays very well with what we have invented with the FF brand. So calling us an EV company, is one potential. But I would rather lean in the same way like Elon Musk to call us a technology company with what we have done as we are working on operating systems for our vehicles and at the end, it doesn't need to be limited to our vehicles where we can transfer and use this technology. We have developed also in other applications like vertical takeoff devices or even marine. So from that perspective, Max, do you want to add?

Yes, I think actually, if you look at the -- how FF was founded, when YT founded the company 10 years ago. And also you mentioned this [indiscernible] back then, this was already electric connectivity and intelligence and sharing. So the DNA of the company has been from day 1, the tech company, we've been a tech company, and we've been basically working hard to get the cars out there. And I think we don't have to downplay, but obviously, we know the core capability, the core DNA is the software, as you mentioned, the AI technology, the Internet technology that we really plug into the FF 91 that we have so far, which is very unique out there. And I think moving on -- and this is exactly the reason why the Global Automotive Bridge Strategy could be working very well because we are further playing our core expertise and use that to partner with our partner from the OEM side to get this AI EV really proactive. So that's the reason why I think we don't have to downplay. We are an AI EV company, and we want to prove that we are going to be successful to get the AI EV cars out. And then at the same time, we'll basically work further to get the -- our core competence in terms of the software and Internet technology and AI technology to be polished.

Great. Thank you. Okay. The next question comes from Rick. Are you expecting to receive financing from Saudi Arabia? And will the second brand be offered in the UAE as well? And I'll give that one to Matthias.

So actually, at the moment, we are not expecting to receive any financing from Saudi Arabia, at least nobody was knocking at our door yet, but that can come. And the second brand for sure, will be offered in UAE as well and UAE is playing also an important role for the execution of the FX strategy.

Thank you. All right. Well, we are -- here, we have some more questions coming up. This one is more specific, I think, to the product. And from Irene Williams and she ask, would you still keep the reclining back seats or any specific features, assuming she means for the FF 91 moving into the next batch of cars on the FX side?

I think, first of all, on the top of the [ FF 91 ] series, of course, that's one of the key features and how we build out this third AI space. We really want to make it a very unique, as I mentioned, earlier intelligent cabin to create more user scenario. It shouldn't just be a transportation tool, as I said earlier, it has to be totally different, it has to be a living space, which is on the go. For the FX, it depends. Obviously, it depends on the space. For the higher level of the vehicle we are considering to really provide a great experience in the back as well. But when you talk about -- but overall, the space, the size of the space is very important for our FX overall product. That's reason why we will definitely see opportunity as long as we can put it in, we would try our best to put it in.

Thank you. The next question from [ Lin Ran ]. It looks like it's a few questions here in this -- but we'll start with the first one. How do the mainstream PHEV products in the U.S. compared to FX upcoming extended-range EV? I guess that's the first part, Max, the question.

Yes. I think there has been a success in the U.S. in terms of PHEV. There was not a real success of the range-extender EV in the earlier days of the United States. Back then there was I3, there was [ Volt ] -- both were not really successful. That's when it was kind of faded away. Right now in the market, you really don't have the PHEV, you don't have the range-extender. However, we have observed the global market. We have noted that the range-extended EV was a different way of product definition, a different way of the architecture and technology and China has been very successful. We also, based on those plus the AI portion and software intelligence, we come up with basically based on what FF would think the best for the market, right? And that is actually -- it's going to be significant because we all understand the pain point of the pure EV in terms of the range anxiety. But at the same time, there's a lot of beauty with EVs great driving performance, smooth driving, experiences. So we really want to provide that. But when you have the hybrid, it does not really give you that, right? That's really why where we are from, the pure electric vehicle, we have this DNA, we have this genes. So what we are thinking is how we can really provide the user experience at the same time to really extend the range, especially for the pricing segment. It's probably you don't have a so large battery pack. You can -- it's hard to do the charging very easily, especially there's a lot of broken chargers out there. That's a reason why we think the range extender AI EV will be a hero product. We'll probably going to have a lot of impact on the whole market and the change and then provide a way better product in terms of user experience to everyone.

And I think the second part of the question was, I don't know if we're willing to share it or we can't share it this time. It's basically the fuel tank, the battery size. We determine what the best mix is with those two for these cars?

Yes. Well, it's definitely a point where we need to put some thought in. The deficiency of the plug-in hybrids is basically they're just an alibi providing electric driving for improving the emissions a little bit. But in a normal day-to-day use you're lacking the possibility to drive in your commute fully electric back and forth and only use a range extended energy provision when you're going on a long trip, so basically driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you don't need to stop for charging. You just extend your range by using the adapted range extender.

This is actually very interesting. We have thought on this. This is also a very specific question. I think we might consider to put it back into the survey, the product definition too. So thanks for the question.

Okay. The next question comes from Rose. When do you foresee the release and first production of promotion of this new brand?

Right. As we showed earlier, is the program timing was kind of played and we're basically aiming to have the first vehicle offline by the end of 2025. And we're going to constantly share more information and progress. So stay tuned for that.

Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from Jeff. He asked what do you see is the role of FF in the future of U.S.A. infrastructure build-out?

Yes, let me answer that a little bit more generic. So basically, with the development, which was ongoing in China over the last couple of years. So I left China in 2016. And since then, there was a huge development in regards of EV technology and also product quality. So the Western approach to hide it behind protective actions like tariffs or troubling the import of these technologies into the Western countries like U.S. or Europe, I think we are able, as we have a dual home strategy and dual home DNA. We are able to really provide a -- yes, a way to connect both worlds and open the dialogue and pull technology suppliers into the U.S. and build up the infrastructure in the U.S. to provide what we need for our AIEVs in Northern America instead of buying it globally. It also is a necessary measure to reduce the carbon footprint. And I think we have a chance to be a catalyst, and we can play the role as a catalyst to make that happen and open doors and dialogues where we have just protectionism at the moment.

Okay. The next question, do you have enough funding to make it to the FX5 and FX6 launch at the end of 2025? Max?

As you know, there's going to be a lot of collaborations. Once you step into the collaboration, there's always commitment. So we're going to make sure that in order to -- every milestone along the process, we'll need to, of course, get the enough funding to support every milestone execution. And this is also a -- just to make sure the commitments out there and make sure our partners and everyone else is on the safe side.

Okay. Thank you. The next question comes from, looks like Els asked, my question is about competition with other market players. How does FX compete with other EV manufacturers in China, such as BYD, Nio and others if and when they penetrate the U.S. market? And how does FX compete with Lucid and Rivian who are already well established in the U.S. market?

So if you look at what YT has shared and what Max has shared, we are aiming for a different spot in the market segment. So if you look at the Lucid and Rivian there in the price range, which anchors around $100,000 and more. And as YT and Max mentioned correctly, we want to be able to offer products starting from $20,000 to $30,000 going up to somewhere in the region of perhaps $80,000 with what we are looking at. And I think with that, we position ourselves very well in accompanying Lucid and Rivian. We have our premium product in the top end, which will also be developed to reach further down. And then we have our FX brand, which is well serving a bigger market penetration. And Max was talking about 100,000 volume at a certain point, which most likely is very, very little for the price points we were talking about and aiming for. BYD and Nio, yes, they have to come to the U.S. We know what it means to be a U.S. OEM. That sets us apart. And for them, it will take quite some time to understand what it means to be in a country where you have to self-certify a vehicle and a product.

I think at the end, we did a good analysis and understand the marketing pain points. The market does need a great product, a great AI EV, great RE-AI EV product. So I think as long, we really make it happen with the minimum necessary investment from our -- and then basically from our shareholders, I think that would give us a great success and also build a good protection in terms of competition. So we're looking forward to that.

Good. Awesome. Well, speaking at the end, I think that concludes our Q&A session. I apologize if we didn't get to everybody's questions. But we will take a look at all of the other questions we got and try to figure out a way to get those answers out to everybody in the near future. Thank you, Matthias. Thank you, Max. Thank you, YT, for speaking today and giving a presentation on the second brand and what that means to the marketplace here. I appreciate everybody's time. Thank you for joining us, and Matthias or Max, if you have any closing remarks, I'll put it over to you.

Yes. I hope you enjoyed listening to us as much as we enjoyed giving you the speeches. And I'm looking forward to have you with us in the near future, again, sharing the news of the development of FX, the FX story. So we will continuously keep you updated. Thank you.

And also thank you for the continued support on the FX and also FF. Sure. And since we've been working so hard on this, and we're going to continue to work harder. One good thing that would be, we're also looking for a lot of good talents. And we'll be reaching out to you and feel free to reach out to us to build and to be part of this great journey, to make a great successful story here in the U.S. for the AI EV era.

Thank you.

Thank you.