Faraday Future design director Page Beermann discusses the joy of clean-sheet design for the FF 91 electric vehicle – ‘simultaneously an intelligent supercomputer and an extreme performance vehicle’The electrification of the auto industry continues at a rapid pace. Even so, there are still plenty of potentially big players waiting in the wings, poised for launch and the chance of seizing a chunk of market share from the incumbent manufacturers.
Wallpaper*: Did you have a clean sheet of paper when you started the design of the FF 91 and has that original design evolved since it was first shown to the public in 2017? Yes, when we began designing the FF 91, we had a clean sheet – a designer’s dream project, and it was a big part of my reason for joining FF. We knew that we wanted to address both Western and Eastern user needs, and we saw a gap in the market there.
There are some visual elements that we as viewers respond to more strongly than others – the eye is drawn to colour contrast, for example, so we made sure that we had strong colour blocking on the FF 91, as this has much more impact than a surface crease. W*: In this age of constantly evolving technologies, like Lidar, can there ever be such a thing as a design freeze, or do you envisage the FF 91 as constantly evolving with hardware and software updates?There is definitely a blurring of the lines between the automotive and consumer electronics worlds – the FF 91 is simultaneously an intelligent supercomputer and an extreme performance vehicle, and this does require a very different approach to design, life cycle and upgrades or updates.
W*: Although electric platforms offer designers more freedom, you also need a very high degree of aerodynamic efficiency. As a designer, how do you balance these two aspects of car body design?Great question – you’ve hit on the biggest challenge car designers face, and it’s what makes working at FF so rewarding. Synthesising all of the inputs, aerodynamics included, into an intuitive, desirable vehicle is a bit like playing 3D chess, or solving a Rubik’s Cube.