EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Faraday Future President, Jerry Wang | $FFAI - video Dailymotion

Benzinga

Faraday Future Global President, Jerry Wang joined Benzinga on our morning show today to discuss what's happening with the company and where it's going in the future. You can watch Benzinga's Premarket Playbook free every market morning from 8am ET on YouTube.

Transcript

00:00jerry good morning what are you doing here today can you hear me i'm doing very well how are you

00:09i'm doing really well look thanks for joining us here um really really appreciate it let me just

00:14get this right out of the way right at the top here um we're going to be talking about faraday

00:19future here today ticker ffai and i want to let you know that our group here we have traded your

00:26stock before but we haven't traded your stock based necessarily on the story or the fundamentals

00:31instead we've just been kind of trading it based off whatever it's doing technically or if it appears

00:37on a scanner or something like that but we've looked into the company we definitely want to hear

00:42more about this so faraday future intelligent electric is a california-based global shared

00:48intelligent electric mobility ecosystem again the ticker here is ffai can you please tell us about

00:54what you do yeah sure we're a california-based intelligent electric vehicle company the

01:00company was founded in 2014 so we have been around for a little bit more than 10 years

01:04we have invest almost 4 billion dollars into our product and technology right now we already launched

01:11our first vehicle which is a very top tier halo product called ff91 actually the car is uh has a

01:19very very strong performance for example 0 to 60 only 2.3 seconds having 1050 horsepower a almost 400

01:27miles per charge on the battery range to get rid of range anxiety it's not only a very powerful car but

01:34it's a very smart very clever car as well so it's fully powered by android developed by us so we have

01:41been doing it for the 10 years and uh at the back seat of the car there's a 27 foldable 27 inch foldable

01:48screen you can enjoy all the live event we can literally have an interview at at the car you can

01:53see all the nba games whatever that you that you want so it's mimic to your living room experience

01:59it's a larger car similar to royce-royce we're selling at something around 100 000 to 300 000

02:05selling to the top celebrities like chris brown jay silfenheim parties mariah carey so all the people love

02:11this vehicle but um more importantly we're penetrating down into the mass volume markets

02:18right now we're in the we're in the phase of launching our second product which is called fx

02:22super one it's a size suv uh slightly larger than kala escalate but only selling half of the price

02:30we already have uh 10 000 pay reservation in our hand and we plan to start to manufacture by end of

02:36this year okay for first of all i'm a car guy myself so when you talk to me about thousand

02:42plus horsepower i get really excited i just can't help it i i got a need for speed uh my own car is

02:48quite quick although it's not quite at a thousand horsepower there and that screen in the back that

02:53actually reminds me of the new screen that you get in the bmw 7 series which kind of folds down from

02:58the back makes it a really really enjoyable experience that's that's great to hear um really cool stuff

03:04there and i appreciate that let me ask you just kind of get into the stock here how do you plan to

03:08balance the capital needs for ff and fx brands while scaling production and what is your cash runway

03:16and funding strategy are you looking to raise money through capital markets make a partnership how's that

03:21going to work yeah that's a great question so first of all with uh we're using a very asset light

03:27mode you know very efficient for example last year i i only burned less than 80 million dollar only like

03:3310 percent or even less less than 10 percent of you know generally what my peer uh was doing for

03:39last year so i'm i'm running this business very efficiently and second i'm leveraging the existing

03:45like four billion dollar uh investment that we already did for the past 10 years so the factory is

03:50ready the team is ready the brand is ready the uh equipment and the facility everything is ready and

03:56ourselves and after sell network is ready so we do not need a lot of additional capital in order to launch

04:03our product and third we're partnering with a very large asia oem to uh bring the second product fx

04:11super one to the united states and get a launch by end of this year and their capacity they're

04:15manufacturing millions of cars per year you know very sound robust and great partner for us to have

04:21so we're not trying to reinvent the wheel instead we're partnering with them and taking advantage of

04:27them having their mechanical uh purchasing power supply chain manufacturing capabilities but we're

04:32focusing on the branding focusing on the technology autonomous driving operating system so on so forth

04:39so in general we're doing the business very efficiently leveraging the levers in the existing

04:44four billion dollar investment and the focus will be fx because uh for ff is a halo product the volume is

04:51small so basically we're delivering the car one or two car per quarter uh we're seeing more like a

04:57marketing promotion it's very hard to get one right but we're only delivering to top celebrities but the

05:02focus will be fx we're trying to hit a gross margin positive growth margin very soon after the fx

05:09initial launch we feel very confident about that once it's launched we basically do not need

05:14substantial additional capital okay that's actually really good to hear i know uh from the the

05:20trader's side of us we don't really care the investor side of us that is perhaps one of the

05:24most important data points i appreciate you sharing that with us let me ask you what's your path to

05:28profitability are there any targets for gross margins or deliveries or unit volumes that investors should

05:34know about yeah absolutely uh we have a manufacturing capacity of something like 30 to 40 000 per year

05:42in our california manufacturer facility it's quite large 1.1 million square feet we invest 300 million

05:49already into that facility so the facility is up and running it says ready uh it's in the production

05:54of f91 and it's ready for our second vehicle fx super one so again we're trying to target a positive

06:01growth margin as soon as possible after we launch the car and uh i think the path for to profitability

06:07is quite uh clear right so once we're launching something around like 20 to 30 000 on my best estimate

06:14you know things will be quite quite interesting and we might have a chance to be profitable which

06:19is not a very high target okay uh awesome that actually does sound like a very attainable target

06:24so that's also great to hear um can you expand a little bit on your international strategy specifically

06:30in places like the middle east where demands uh where are you seeing demand where are you going next

06:35here yeah absolutely uh we're seeing very good demand in both middle east as well as in united states

06:41and to be honest middle east is a great market it's actually very good for branding for marketing

06:46and we have a great local partner is royal family member in uh uh universal hama uae and they are

06:53giving us great support providing us license providing us manufacturer facility uh they love us as a

06:59u.s manufacturing technology company right but uh on the other hand the uae market size is relatively

07:05small only 200 000 cars sold per year but in united states we're the second largest automotive

07:11market globally 15 million cars sold per year right so the focus is definitely in united states

07:17market but with the branding promotion as well as pilot manufacturing capability or opportunity in uae

07:24that's very important for us so the plan is to launch in uae first in november actually we're going

07:29to share a little bit more today and shortly after that our progress in both united states as well as in

07:35uae and then the target is to start manufacturing uh in the united states by end of this year

07:40okay all right so pretty good uh pretty good targets there let me ask you just kind of shifting

07:45gears here a little bit uh can you walk us through how the c10 treasury investment portfolio is structured

07:51passive versus active allocations diversification risk management etc yeah absolutely that's a great

07:56question uh we're 80 percent passive and 20 active and uh as uh as um you you definitely know as a

08:05capital markets trader right uh for the normal people right not for the professional trader but for

08:09normal people the most efficient way is to buy passive index fund if they wanted to trade us equity

08:15right and similar sauce here we're building a crypto index fund focusing on top 10 crypto and having a

08:22weighted ratio on their market cap so basically it's very you know basically reflect how the market move

08:28right and we do our allocation because we're a public company focusing on building cars we're not taking

08:33risk taking bets of betting numbers 300 coin uh and uh and betting it go up one thousand percent no our

08:41we wanted to be careful we want to fulfill our fidgetary duty to our shareholder so basically we allocate

08:4680 percent of our own capital into the digital asset treasury by the passive index uh found strategy and 20

08:54allocate based on our own active analysis but focusing on the top 10 point and basically our selection i would

09:01say we did a good job for the past few weeks we select the bnb uh which is our largest position they

09:07have a rich historical high we select hype we select link uh with like so long so solona you know all

09:14the coins are trading greatest beat our index so we're quite happy there okay so it sounds like this

09:19actually helps your automotive operations it's not just for financial diversification uh no it's not for

09:25just for just for financial diversification for the following reasons so first as as we know the

09:31crypto asset um you know trading or the vol the value has been going out you know very well for the

09:36past five for the past five to seven years uh based on our estimate it has a cager of almost 70 percent

09:43right so the underlying asset will appreciate hopefully if this development continues which we

09:48firmly believe and second it can generate a yield of almost like five percent by staking right so

09:53whatever the staking yield that we're generating this can be supportive on the cash flow that we

09:58need on the automotive side and third this trees on our balance sheet right so it's net asset that has

10:03substantial upside opportunity and generating capital so our financial will be you know better

10:08compared to us not doing that so it's it's um it's a win-win scenario here yeah i like that i like

10:14the thought and i i like to see more and more companies doing that me personally okay i've got two

10:19first of all thank you again for being here i've got two really quick questions from our viewers

10:23here that i'll get you out on uh first one here is when is the launch of the new car uh the launch

10:29will be in uae middle east first in november and we'll start the manufacture in the u.s uh by the

10:36this year and then we'll gradually launch and gradually ramp up from there okay okay and i know

10:41you kind of briefly touched on this but it might not have totally sank in another question here is how

10:46can you get to your 3 000 car target if you're only making two to three every quarter uh so it's

10:51basically different vehicle two to three every quarter is our ff91 the first flagship vehicle

10:56similar to tesla tesla did not launch model 3 and model y at the very beginning right they launched

11:01roaster very small volume product similar to f91 then they penetrate down to model s and model x then

11:07going down to model 3 and model y so we are doing our own like something between model x model x and model

11:133 and model

11:17fx super one targeting you know relatively you know mass volume market selling half of the price of

11:23the cattle escalate we have a capacity again of 30 to 40 000 per year so we're able to get that car

11:30launched no problem and we wanted to do it step by step instead of rushing getting all the vehicle

11:34delivered and having some quality issue that's not good for anyone yeah no absolutely okay absolutely

11:40fantastic was there anything else that you'd like to share with the viewers or potential investors

11:44here today uh sure uh please um pay some attention and focus on us our market cap is only 250 million

11:50uh u.s dollar we're nothing compared to other uh vehicle companies that traded public trading in the

11:56united states but i think uh the company have huge potential uh and if we launch the car step by step the

12:02goal again the goal is not to take you know 10 20 share and be better than tesla or larger than tesla at

12:08least that's not the near-term goal the goal is to step by step even if we capture one percent of the

12:14u.s automotive market we're talking about 150 000 vehicle per year which is more than enough to bring

12:19us to profitability so i think we have a very unique uh advantages and uh action capability as well as

12:26the great uh market upside potential okay absolutely fantastic faraday future president jeremy wang really

12:34appreciate your time uh perhaps we can have you back after that launch in the uae you could let us

12:38know how it goes that'll help investors pay more attention absolutely yeah and we're sharing more

12:43information on today's event september 19th so please pay attention to that as well if you're interested

12:48there we go jerry thank you very much for waking up early and joining us here today we really appreciate

12:53it look forward to following up with you in the future okay no problem thank you so much

12:56thank you you're very welcome have a great day and enjoy your weekend

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Faraday Future President, Jerry Wang | $FFAI

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