We first talked about Faraday Future in December 2015. It was announcing investments in its Nevada factory. Called N.LV (North Las Vegas), it should start production in 2017. Multiple funding problems made us think it would never reach the manufacturing stage until it announced a partnership with Geely in January. Sandy Munro will help the company reach production. He had the chance to present some elements that could make the FF91 a unique EV.
One of the elements that caught our attention was the cooling method for the 2170 cells it intends to use. Instead of getting a cooling plate or loops, the cells will be directly immersed in the non-conductive cooling liquid. It would be interesting if Faraday Future allowed Munro to go a little deeper into that to reveal the advantages and downsides of such a cooling method.
Weight is the most obvious penalty. On the other hand, extracting heat from all sides of the cells could make the system a more effective solution than the other two we mentioned. The properties of the cooling liquid also deserve a more extensive explanation. One cool thing is that the cells do not seem to be welded together: they have a contact layered board that connects them.
The first thing Munro describes is the dual-motor powertrain for the rear axle of the FF91. He compliments Faraday Future for integrating the inverters, the motors, and the transmissions in a single, compact module. That’s something Lucid has also done.
Peter Rawlinson’s interviews show he’s very proud of how compact Lucid’s solution is: it weighs only 163 lb (74 kg). Lucid’s module aggregates motor, inverter, transmission, and differential in a single set. We asked Munro if he ever got a chance to visit Lucid, and he told us he is always open to invitations. Asking to check what companies have to present never worked well for his team.
Back to Faraday Future, Munro is pleased to see its motors use a hairpin design on the stators. He is also impressed with how small the transmission is: it is much smaller than those he has seen in the Tesla Model Y, for example. Another mass-cutting measure was to use parallel IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) in the inverters.
There is nothing innovative about how the car is built, and Munro politely makes it clear, mentioning how mega castings could help change that. Yet, he finds plenty of things inside the vehicle to like it a lot. Make sure you watch the whole thing and wish Faraday Future and Geely good luck in bringing this car to the market. More options are something customers should celebrate.