Faraday Future’s Cars Aren’t on the Road Yet – But They’re Coming to Video Games

Faraday Future may not be close to releasing a car ready to zip down freeways, but it is porting a concept version of its electric car into a video game, hoping to convince more people to plunk down deposits of up to $5,000 to reserve a model of its flagship sedan, the FF 91.

Gardena-based Faraday announced this week that a digital version of its concept car – not the FF91, but an earlier prototype – will be added to a racing simulator game called “Asphalt 8,” made by French mobile game developer Gameloft. The FFZERO1 concept car will be available by December for fans to “drive” in the racing game. Faraday also plans to add its first upcoming production vehicle, the FF 91, at a later date.

Faraday fans have been waiting a long time for their cars to arrive. Some long-haulers may have been twiddling their thumbs for the last eight years—since the FF91 was announced. This new development isn’t exactly a step towards getting customers behind the wheel but it could lead to more cash, which could speed up production timelines. If Faraday’s marketing ploy works out, and people playing “Asphalt 8” are intrigued by the digital version of the car and have funds to pre-order a real one, Faraday could certainly use the cash.

“The FFZERO1 concept is an amplified version of the design and engineering philosophies that will underpin FF’s production vehicles, beginning with the FF 91 Futurist which is anticipated to start production later this year,” Faraday’s design director Page Beermann said in a statement Tuesday.

Sensor Tower notes “Asphalt 8” had 3.6 million global downloads in July and that Gameloft gained around $133,000 in revenue that month from in-app sales. The free to play game is available on both Android and iOS. According to Sensor Tower, “Asphalt 8” is the seventh-most downloaded mobile racing game in the world, and is most popular in countries including India, Brazil and Russia.

Faraday’s cars will be added to the current “Asphalt 8” game, and again in the newest upcoming addition to the franchise, “Asphalt 9: Legends.”

Faraday recently raised $52 million of a planned $600 million financing round to help the electric vehicle firm finally start delivering its cars, which CEO Carsten Brietfeld promised earlier this month will be arriving in driveways by the fourth quarter of 2022. In an Aug. 15 statement, Brietfeld said that production at Faraday’s FF iEFactory in Hanford is close to being up and running.