Jia Yueting: I must repay the debt FF wants to lead an era of Tesla

(Original title: Encounter Jia Yueting)

Visit all the places, including the styling centers that people don't normally visit. At 9 o'clock in the United States on April 2, 2018, the "Automotive Business Review" reporter was allowed to visit the Faraday Future Motor Company's R&D center in Los Angeles.

It seems that this is just like the cultural atmosphere in Silicon Valley. All the people in the FF car do not have independent offices. So does Jia Yueting.

On November 2, 2017, when Tencent News “Prism” interviewed Jia Yueting, he still had an office. “The room is not big. It is a coffee table sofa and a desk. Two big screens are hung on the wall on the side of the desk. LeTV."

At that time, Jia Yueting had publicly responded to questions from outsiders for the first time since he flew to the United States on July 4, 2017. At that time, his car dream faced the difficult situation of FF's A round of financing.

Los Angeles Faraday Future Motor Company Global R&D Headquarters

Today, according to his speech at the first global supplier summit on the afternoon of February 13, the western time on February 13, Beijing time, FF has successfully completed US$1.5 billion in equity financing, which basically meets all the equity before the IPO. Financing needs.

"Automotive Business Review" confirmed the news through various channels, but besides Jia Yueting and his nephew, Wang Jiawei, who is responsible for the second round of financing, and legal experts, I am afraid that no FF employees understand the details of the financing.

Jia Yueting at this time should be the best time for more than a year. We have always hoped to have the opportunity to visit Jia Yueting alone, but we have been told that it is inconvenient to speak. The arrival of Los Angeles is still told that it is impossible to interview him.

They said that Jia Yueting now does not want to be born out of the knot, but only hopes to concentrate on mass production of FF 91, which was his first product of a new car species.

FF global R & D headquarters

But now there is a secret thing in the world. Regarding the news that Ruichi Motors established a new energy automobile company in Nansha, Guangzhou to facilitate the landing of FF vehicles in China, the news that Evergrande Group owner Xu Jiayin has become the largest shareholder of the FF Auto, after the interview of Auto Business Review, It has been rumors.

Looking at the busy scenes of people in the two office buildings, you will feel that Jia Yueting is indeed a small force that can't kill. I asked to visit all places, including Jia Yueting's station.

Around 10 o'clock in the morning, Jia Yueting, who had just finished the president's office, was standing in front of the computer.

His station is in the corner of the second floor of a research and development building. On the tall table, there were a lot of notes on the matter that could be written on behalf of various agents. A laptop was sandwiched between two desktop computers. The tall chair, it is estimated that Jia Yueting would not normally sit on the office.

I stepped forward and Jia Yueting came to the side of the station. We shook hands. He said: "Come on a business trip to the United States ah?" I said: "Just took part in the SF event in Silicon Valley and came to see another F company." He grinned.

Jia Yueting wore a black hoodie, jeans and casual shoes. We stood there and started an unexpected but reasonable conversation.

When I saw Jia Yueting, what immediately surfaced in my mind was the theme "dreams and anxiety" of the 10th China Auto Blue Book Forum to be held in May. This era has given us more opportunities to create and realize dreams, but what followed is an equally lingering anxiety.

"See if you have no white hair on your head," I asked. "This kind of life and death moment I experienced was more ups and downs." He replied.

A female assistant told Jia Yueting that the new round of meetings will begin again. Before leaving, he sent me a hat with the FF logo. This is a souvenir of the FF 91 test car when it successfully challenged the Pike Peak on June 27, 2017.

The following is an excerpt from this interview with Jia Yueting in the “Automotive Business Review”, involving his understanding of the past, his grasp of the current FF mass production and his knowledge of the auto industry.

A corner of FF company

"This is not possible without heart."

"Automotive Business Review": You are ambitious!

Jia Yueting (Founder, CEO, Faraday Future): It is true that many mistakes have also been made.

"Automotive Business Review": If this thing comes back, are you still doing so much?

Jia Yueting: In fact, we have some reflections in the past. It is true that we have made mistakes, but we have made mistakes at the rhythm. At the same time, there are too many things to unfold. If we master the rhythm, the result will be the opposite (and now).

"Automotive Business Review": Your things are logically connected, but managing a magazine is troublesome. Your management borders are so large that each sector can be turned into a Big Mac.

Jia Yueting: Yes, rhythm problems.

"Automotive Business Review": Now FF you personally steer, only do this thing, I am afraid the probability of success will be high.

Jia Yueting: I'm doing this now. Have you experienced our product?

"Automotive Business Review": Experienced once last year, it still feels very good. Just another experience, the (along) young man asked, do you have a heart attack?

Jia Yueting: (laughs).

"Automotive Business Review": It's true that it will go down and the heart will hang. One of your motors is more than 300 kilowatts, which is awesome.

Jia Yueting: We have a 350 kilowatt motor and a car with 3 motors. Do you see our interior?

"Automotive Business Review": Look, yes. If the mass production is even more cattle.

Jia Yueting: (pointing to busy foreigners on the next station) This is our management. We just opened the president meeting on Monday morning.

"Automotive Business Review": What are your inner thoughts at this point in time? I was thinking that if you experience such a great ups and downs, will you have no heart from it?

Jia Yueting: This is absolutely impossible! The idea of ​​making cars has never changed. FF is born for change, we do not follow, not a follower. This is the difference between the nature of all China's manufacturing companies.

They follow Tesla as a low-end, low-quality, low-cost product that uses Chinese policy dividends, market dividends, and demographic dividends to hit the Chinese market.

FF is born to hope to be a product leading Tesla's era and to become Tesla's products, technology and business model in the next era to transform this industry. This is my core mission. The second is for the sake of environmental protection. This has already formed a consensus.

Now we are more focused on making cars. This is what you just said. I want to formulate a more forward-looking strategy and define a very good product. The product is my own custom, I am the chief product officer.

I come to provide funds, resources, let the team to do the car, this model is difficult to achieve dreams. Therefore, it does not mean that professional managers themselves have problems, but like the ones we do, they must have an innovative spirit. Only the founders themselves can do this.

This matter is powerful enough to be transformative. It is very, very talent-intensive, technology-intensive, and capital-intensive. It's not the founders who bring them personally. It's harder, let alone FF. This mode of domestic car making is not very hard for the founder to do it by himself. It is even harder to make a car like FF.

"The Chief Product Officer is not a false name"

"Automotive Business Review": There are also new car manufacturers in China who have already made cars and feel less than ideal. Of course, he also said that he is the chief product officer, but should the chief product officer be a successful product?

Jia Yueting: Yes, the chief product officer is not a false name. We have been with us for so many years. Many products have no precedent in the world. They were all made by me personally. At the time of LeTV, YouTube was not yet available. Netflix has only just begun. In 2007, it started streaming media.

We (10) LeTV in the year 04, and (20) 03 years our technology is finished. This can be seen from an early age, LeTV itself is a certain leading enterprise, is the leading product, leading strategy, rather than simply follow the type of business.

(20) In 2007, we started to make hardware, make boxes, do television, do mobile phones, and then make cars. You can see from the whole process, whether it is Internet products or consumer electronics products, and then the next generation of automotive products, that our philosophy has always been hoped to be driven by product technology and business model changes. Are two engines.

Therefore, to make a product is not what I call a product officer or a product officer, but is really related to his genes and experiences. Like our television, it's no exaggeration to say that every super TV, as of today, is still the world's most advanced user experience, the most advanced product design, and many followers still imitate us. To reach such a standard is more difficult, to build a complete ecosystem, it requires a very high cross-border capability.

"Automotive Business Review": It's not just good product design that you said.

Jia Yueting: That's right. Modeling design, UI design is only a specific point, a major successful change, it is a complete ecosystem, requires hardware, software, content, platform and Internet applications five in one, these five elements are brought together. Why we call it ecological countermeasures is to break things in five different fields, create chemical reactions, create new elements, and create entirely new experiences. This difficulty is still relatively great.

"Automotive Business Review": As you set up LePar in the early years, it is a kind of advanced approach, a little bit of new retail now. Not only in the sky, but also on the ground, combining online and offline. Your idea is ahead of time.

Jia Yueting: That's right. Many years ago I created many models and everyone followed. This is also our contribution to the industry. Although we have failed stage by stage, we have not lost.

The failure lies in the imbalance of our own strategic rhythm. Our capital management capabilities have not kept pace with our cash flow management capabilities. These two core issues have caused us to stage failures. In terms of another dimension, LeTV has won, at least the model has been widely used for reference, and it also brings value to the promotion of the entire industry.

For us, in fact, we can take all of our past successful experience and lessons learned from failing to get FF cars. It is also a good thing for the car to make improvements.

FF to install production equipment in California factory

"I must pay my debt back"

"Automotive Business Review": Now that you are doing your car with all your heart and soul?

Jia Yueting: Yes, it is FF. In the past, I was too tightly tied up with the company. Many of the company's debts were personally guaranteed by me. I must repay the debt.

"Automotive Business Review": Have you seen what Sun Sun recently said? I think he wanted to put LeTV at the lowest valuation and then come back.

Jia Yueting: (Unanswered, subordinates said: Lao Sun has the idea of ​​an old grandson).

"Automotive Business Review": To achieve mass production by the end of the year?

Jia Yueting: This is our internal goal. At the end of this year, we have to produce products and carry out extensive internal testing. Of course, our previous tests have done a fair job, but we still need our super fans and geeks to carry out extensive experiences. , to jointly improve our products. The first owners are our fans.

This is different from traditional car manufacturers. It is to quickly iterate, quickly improve and optimize our products. In addition to being rigorously tested like traditional manufacturers, we need to really test it in the hands of the user. This must be done after the real use scenario of the user. This is how an Internet product is built.

"Automotive Business Review": Are these low-volume products given to users in the United States or to Chinese users?

Jia Yueting: The first is the user in the United States.

"Automotive Business Review": What is the biggest difficulty now?

Jia Yueting: Supply chain delivery time. The reason is two factors. Last year, our capital chain was strained for a year. In fact, we stagnated last year and we did not make much progress. This is one reason.

For another reason, we have enough innovations and enough changes in this car. The entire components are brand new components for suppliers. From definition to R&D to delivery, the difficulty is much higher than its standard parts. This is an objective factor.

"Automotive Business Review": Can you fill up the supply chain this year?

Jia Yueting: It should be almost. There will be huge difficulties. I think this kind of investment is rare in Western companies. Many people came from other companies. Since I was a CEO directly, the passion and the Internet methodology that I brought to everyone really surprised Tesla's people. Everyone has a momentum.

Vice President of FF Automotive go to market Lu Zhengyu

"Tribulation is the best quenching"

"Automotive Business Review": Now it is all on one boat. All of your top officials don't have an office. You also stand here and work.

Jia Yueting: (laughs).

"Automotive Business Review": You have encountered great difficulties. The difficulties of the past year were even greater. But are there no white hair on your head? Are you not worried?

Jia Yueting: The moments of life and death that I have experienced have been ups and downs, and the entire history of LeTV is like this. So I told them that this may be a good thing. Tribulation is the best thing to do. It is all about doing better for the next step.

Many people came to see me, especially some domestic entrepreneurs who came to visit me and felt that I should commit suicide 10,000 times. But when I look at me, hey, it is not the case. The opposite is true. The status has not changed, as it was many years ago.

The two main reasons are: First, you are convinced that what you have created is value that others cannot create. Although we have made fatal mistakes, our innovation is very, very much, and differentiates even the entire industry. The development has very valuable value for exploration. As long as value is created, success and failure cannot simply be viewed from one dimension. This is what I said just now. You may have seen failure, but I have not lost. It actually creates a lot of value.

The second point, when I do one thing, I don't mean to feel sorry for the industry. I am sorry that others, even if I make mistakes, are not making mistakes for the sake of personal interests. Instead, the future can be improved either in terms of experience or lack of capacity. evolution.

FF company parking lot

"A lot of people see only appearance"

"Automotive Business Review": But some people still think that you haven't spent all your cash from the stock market on the industry and think that you have left a small vault. Should you spend part of your money on the car?

Jia Yueting: The car is one aspect, another one is easy (took) billions, and we burned seven or eight billion.

Really, how many miracles the music has created! (20) In the second half of the year from 15 to (20) the first half of 16 years, the most successful consumer electronic brand in the world that year was LeTV, with 17 million units shipped. Did not cross this level, resulting in burning money and burning it.

If we cross this level, the head of R&D of our mobile phone is now deeply aware of the fact that the music value of the mobile phones created by LeTV is much higher than that of any other brand, but we have not crossed over.

"Automotive Business Review": But you are selling with money?

Jia Yueting: Many people see only the appearance. This is just one factor. Losing money to sell, our television is also selling at a loss, but its income from Internet value-added services will come faster, it is more strongly related to content, and the relevance between mobile phones and content is weaker, but other Internet value-added services for mobile phones Service comes faster but requires cycles. Selling 17 million units at a loss is not an easy task. The core reason is not to lose money. It has many innovations.

Jia Yueting, editor-in-chief of "Automotive Business Review" and co-founder Jia Ke

"The winning side is 100%, or 99%"

"Automotive Business Review": It is not easy to buy a car that is comfortable to sit behind. FF 91 feels very comfortable.

Jia Yueting: We are not only more comfortable at the back, we have a wheelbase of three-meters. Our rear seats have a back-tilt angle of 155 degrees. The Maybach wheelbase is about three-sevenths of a meter, and the back-tilt angle can reach 135 degrees and 20 degrees less. This is an essential difference between product definition and understanding of space.

The second, not only ride comfort, but more importantly, our FF91 hopes to create a brand-new third living space, which is different from all car manufacturers. Many manufacturers only pay attention to electrification. Actually, electrification is just one of our foundations. What's more important is the Internet. We are thinking about how to create a transport internet life outside of the office and home and mobile phones.

FF 91, the open door is the world of the screen, this is a real Internet car, you do not want to drive it after you get in the car, the fun of driving in a secondary position, it provides real Internet experience between A and B. After getting on the bus, you don’t need to take a cell phone at all. This is our very core goal. Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz BMW and even Tesla, ah, this concept and we have a qualitative difference, they still think of the car as a means of transport.

"Automotive Business Review": What you want to do is to make users willing to stay in the car.

Jia Yueting: Actually, what I want is for you to get in the car and throw away your mobile phone. This is a new Internet living space.

"Automotive Business Review": What is your chance to win this car?

Jia Yueting: For those of us who are very willing to challenge the future, it is certainly highly confident. In my opinion, the winning side is 100%, or 99%, or the theory I just said. In the end, what is a win or a loss is whether you really promote the progress of the industry or whether it is a simple businessman behavior. It is no exaggeration to say that all Chinese cross-border builders are businessmen.

However, each stage of our failure is caused by the lack of businessmen’s thinking, but definitely not all of them are businessmen’s thinking. It is essential to reform industries and promote progress. This is a basic belief, plus the so-called business value of businessmen.

The wave of cross-border car manufacturing across the Internet is driven by FF. In fact, we did this five years ago. We started with the role of a weathervane and a flag.

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