Faraday Future shows off its Formula E electric race car

Previous Next

1 of 3

Called “Polarity,” Faraday says the livery is a “striking minimalist contrast between black and white.” White “symbolizes clean energy, harnessed from a number of renewable resources,” while black represents the “assertive, powerful, and refined performance” drivers will experience. If only Faraday put this much effort into discussing the car it actually plans to sell to customers.

Perhaps just as significant as the livery itself are the LeEco stickers on the car. This Chinese electronics giant is the source of most of Faraday’s funding, but may also be developing electric cars on its own. It unveiled a concept car called the LeSee at the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, and also has a technical partnership with Aston Martin.

Read more: Mercedes-Benz eyes a spot on the Formula E grid

While Faraday was able to go nuts with the livery, the car its team will race is the same Spark-Renault SRT_O1E chassis used by the other teams, per Formula E rules. This season, the cars get a new front-end design intended to make them look cooler. It’s unusual in racing for design changes to be made purely for aesthetic reasons, but with its electric cars and gimmicks like FanBoost (which lets fans vote to give a driver a temporary power boost), Formula E isn’t like most race series.

This season, Faraday’s role will be largely limited to that of a sponsor, although the company says it may provide some help with software. Over the next two seasons, Faraday expects to begin supplying actual hardware to the team, potentially including motors and other powertrain components.

Meanwhile, the electric car Faraday plans to put into production in less than two years remains a mystery. Faraday broke ground on a factory in North Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier this year, and recently inked a battery-supply deal with LG Chem, but has not released any substantial information on the car itself.