Following Tesla’s ‘Master Plan’, Will Faraday Future Succeed? Partners Not Rivals For A Sustainable Future

It has been more than 10 years since Elon Musk revealed Tesla’s original Master Plan which basically consisted of 4 stages:

1. Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive
2. Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price
3. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car
   And…
4. Provide solar power.

From a low volume high-priced sports car ‘Tesla Roadster’ to medium volume mid-priced ‘S’ & ‘X’ to low priced ‘Model 3’ to the 4th stage of the plan with the acquisition of SolarCity. Tesla seems to have been successful in accomplishing this simple yet difficult to achieve dream.

Faraday Future seemed to follow the same path with their first launch of an electric Super-Car the FF 01 at CES 2016 which went catastrophic as the vehicle was even far from a prototype, a concept that might never come to reality.

Their first baby step of the master-plan had failed badly and the need for urgent comeback was far more necessary even for the survival of the company. So this year they have come back with a product that seems to be a ray of hope among the financial and leadership crisis at the over-ambitious manufacturer.

Faraday Future’s Ideological Crisis

I think the leadership crisis at Faraday Future is far greater than their financial crisis. Tesla also has gone through rough times even the 2008 economic crunch, but the one thing that kept them alive was their leadership and the basic ideology.

The main thing that can get Faraday Future out of this crisis is to get a leadership that can not only inspire people inside the company but their customers and rest of the world as well, just like Elon Musk.

Clearly FF has not ‘started with why’ like Tesla who have a bigger ‘why’, a mission, a purpose that doesn’t just create customers but loyal-followers that are even criticised for being like a ‘religious cult’.

They can get real help in this regard by listening and consulting to Simon Sinek who explains why people and businesses fail or succeed, it’s just the matter of working inside out i.e. Why > How > What.

While Faraday Future is doing the exact opposite, they start with their presentations with ‘what’ they’re trying to accomplish in the future and ‘what’ features their cars are going to offer.

We can see this basic difference in Tesla Model 3 unveil event and Faraday Future’s reveal of the ‘FF 91’ production-intent car. Where Elon Musk starts with the dream of ‘accelerating world’s transition to sustainable energy‘ while FF starts with what their new vehicle is ‘first of the species‘ and the ‘future of mobility‘, this can easily scare people and FF’s own future might turn out to be that of TiVo.

So even if FF somehow overcomes their financial crisis, they will have a greater challenge ahead of them on ideological grounds.

People are not only interested in a high-tech future, they’re more interested in a safer, greener & sustainable future and products that come with a belief not just top-class technology.

Tesla & FF – Partners Not Rivals

By perceiving Tesla their direct competitor Faraday Future is making another conceptual mistake. It is basically the Green-Vehicle manufacturers versus the rest of the traditional car makers that insist on their wrong-doing and not pro-actively helping towards a viable future.

This concept of rivalry on the part of Faraday Future will only make them alone in the game, since Tesla is the only company in the world that reached at the verge of producing EVs for the masses, they should be considered like guides, leaders and inspiration not competition.

Although FF is secretly and loudly following Elon Musk’s Master Plan, they are reluctant to admit it. At their ‘FF 91’ reveal event, most presenters were cautious not to utter the word ‘Tesla’ much and in addition they proudly presented drag races that showed the defeat of Tesla prodution-vehicles at the hands of their prototype.

Still in one of their videos the ‘FF 91’ prototype beats Tesla Model S by a fraction of a second and remember that Model S P100D is prior to the 8.1 software update that makes it go 0-60 in just 2.4 seconds and FF 91 at it’s very best and bigger battery does it in 2.39 seconds. So after the Tesla software update where will Faraday Future stand if they only have this feature as a selling point?

If Faraday Future starts to believe Tesla as their partner in the quest for a greener, sustainable future even in the abstract sense, they will have more time and energy to put towards more meaningful features for their products.

Most people don’t buy their cars for quarter-mile drag races, they buy it on the basis of trust in a brand and product.

Faraday Future should consider non-green manufacturers as their rivals not Tesla and surely they will progress in the right direction.

So Faraday Future claims they have got 64,124 reservations for their flagship EV the ‘FF 91’ till 5th Jan, 2017 but didn’t comment on the latest number of reservations on our query. This looks like a good number for a startup that has never before delivered a single production car for their customers, now it’s up to FF’s commitment to fulfil the expectations of their potential customers.

Faraday Future should focus more on inspiring people like Tesla has done in the past decade, instead of trying to impress everyone with how fantastic and futuristic their cars are. Also acknowledging Tesla as their conceptual partner rather than a direct rival will move them to the right direction.

We need more companies, leaders and people who believe in their hearts that Electric and Zero-Emission mode of transport should be the future of our upcoming generations and this should be a uniting factor not a dividing one.

You can explore the one and only ‘FF 91’ with specs, HD photos and videos here.