It’s in the books now. Long before the world will see a working concept of Faraday Future’s forthcoming production vehicles, the aspiring automaker’s business partner has revealed its own.
LeEco, the Chinese media company that is a strategic partner with Faraday Future, has unveiled the LeSEE, an electric sedan that LeEco is positioning as a Tesla Model S challenger.
At an event in Beijing last week, LeEco executives touted the LeSEE as a car built with autonomous technology in mind. The steering wheel folds away and screens offer up in-car entertainment for passengers.
LeEco is a massive media conglomerate in China, so it follows that the company intends to work its many product lines into vehicles like the LeSEE, including streaming internet content.
The company’s CEO, Jia Yueting, is also personally backing US-based Faraday Future (FF). FF’s lead research, development, and engineering guy, Nick Sampson, told Business Insider earlier this month that FF would have a concept version of its production vehicle before the end of this year.
It recently showed off a teaser photo of said vehicle.
Auto industry watchers have said that LeEco’s big reveal in Beijing last week is what FF’s debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas should’ve been. The introduction of FF in January was one of the most-anticipated events at CES this year, but it quickly fell flat after the startup revealed a non-functioning, one-seat race-car concept, instead of an actual passenger vehicle.
Watch the LeSEE drive on stage in Beijing here (2:22 mark):
As reported by Business Insider