Rodney Wilson, Visalia branch manager of Electric Motor Shop & Supply, speaks with executives from Faraday Future about his company possibly become a supplier to the startup electric car manufacturer during last week’s South Valley Industrial Summit in Tulare. Photo by David Castellon

Executives for electric car startup Faraday Future, said they want to disrupt the car industry, and that includes the relationships they’ll have with suppliers after their new manufacturing plant in Hanford begins making vehicles next year.

“We need a structured supply base, but we need more than that. We need a supply base that owns technology and can develop technology,” said Pablo Ucar, head of supply chain for Faraday Future, which is looking to go up against Tesla, Inc. and the internal combustion engine carmakers in building all-electric cars with zero emissions.

Faraday announced in August a lease to take over the former Pirelli Tire plant on Hanford’s south end to convert into its first manufacturing plant, with current expectations to deliver the first cars late next year.

Modern partnerships

Ucar was among a group of four Faraday executives who spoke last week at the first South Valley Industrial Summit at the California Edison Energy Education Center in Tulare.

Organizers said the event was an opportunity for people in manufacturing and other industries to network, as well as to learn about a new type of industry coming to the Valley, represented by Faraday and GreenPower Motor Co., the latter a Canadian manufacturer of electric-powered busses that is building its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Porterville.

Many of the estimated 240 people who attended the event — among them Rodney Wilson, Visalia branch manager of Electric Motor Shop & Supply — wanted to know what part they can play in electric vehicle manufacturing.

“They represent a new era, a new type of business that we really haven’t had here before. We really want to grow our business, doing business with them,” he said.

A vision of the future

Wilson said his company is positioned to help this new, high profile industry

“If we can find the right kind of contract … it could put our name on the map,” he said.

That’s the sort of thinking that Faraday is looking for among potential suppliers and service providers, Ucar said.

During the Faraday presentation, he told the crowd that his company doesn’t intend to follow traditional supply methods, because new technology is changing so fast that suppliers need to be ready to change what they make or provide quickly.

“And we need [suppliers] who can stomach this, because that’s going to take some risks.”

Ucar said he also wants suppliers who can tell him and other Faraday executives how to make a better car.

“We are problem solvers, and need suppliers who are problem solvers,” he said, explaining that his company’s suppliers need to be innovators in their own right, whether they make steering wheels or the software and computer hardware that currently makes up about 30 percent of the FF 91, the first luxury electric car model Faraday intends to produce.

Suppliers as problem solvers

“We cannot engineer everything. That would be stupid,” Ucar explained. “We need to leverage our suppliers. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Our suppliers are building these parts every day. They know how to make it better than us. They know more than us. They should be investing in new technologies.”

Faraday executives said they might update their car models every two years instead of every four or more years, as is common in the rest of the auto industry.

In addition, they said, competition in the fledgling electric vehicle — or “EV” — industry is fierce, with traditional car companies working on all-electric vehicles along with startups, Tesla and Faraday among them.

California is the focal point

Leonel Leal, a Lindsay native who now is senior manager over manufacturing and engineering at Faraday Future, told the crowd that California is the focal point of this new EV industry, with at least 19 car-manufacturing startups he knows of in the state and about 200 other businesses developing parts and components for electric cars, including autonomous driving systems.

And the Valley, with its central location in the state, has a prime opportunity to become a hub for this new industry, much like Detroit became the initial hub for the U.S. auto industry after Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Co. there in 1903, Leal noted, adding that shortly after that, 125 car companies sprouted up in Detroit.

“The Central Valley is literally in the middle of the largest [recent] innovation in the automotive industry,” Leal said.

“The exciting part is this disruption will create trillions of dollars of new business and growth. For the Central Valley and companies like FF, this is a great opportunity to use new thinking to be part of that innovation.

The talent is here

Leal said he believes there are several companies already in the Valley capable of taking what they already do and adapting it to serving the needs of a carmaker.

Mike Betts, chairman and CEO of Betts Company in Fresno, agreed. His business has three divisions, mostly making after-market parts for cars and trucks, though the company’s industrial spring division also supplies the agricultural, irrigation and industrial industries.

He said he’d like to add being an original parts manufacturer for Faraday Future to the list.

“It’s a pretty big fish. They’re bringing a new dimension to California — the Central Valley — that we haven’t had before,” he said.

He said that from his discussion with the Faraday team, they want to do much of their business locally, which reduces transport costs and makes audits of the suppliers’ and manufacturers’ operations — common practice in the auto industry — easier.

“I think there are a lot of companies, like ourselves, that will need to identify opportunities there and then invest in going after those opportunities,” he said.

Multiplier effect

Not that he expects all the companies Faraday Future will work with to be local. Odds are, the company may end up contracting for some goods and services outside the Valley, and some of those outside businesses may set up shop here to work with the carmaker, Betts said

Still, of the five to seven local, additional jobs each of the estimated 1,000 workers Faraday plans to hire is expected to generate, he said, “My guess is at least half of them will be local companies that are willing to invest and willing to grow.”

Faraday Future has set up a website where businesses interested in working with the carmaker can tell company officials about what they do.

“You need to be very specific at what you’re good at. I don’t want 100 things. We want the best of the best,” Ucar noted. “I need specific suppliers who can give me specific answers to my problems.”

He added that Faraday isn’t yet looking for suppliers to produce after-market parts and accessories for its cars, but a team is looking into that, “because it’s a huge potential business.”

Good people needed

Besides looking at innovation among suppliers, Faraday officials said they’re seeking comparable qualities in employees.

Ucar said he looks to hire problem solvers. “Experience is important, a capacity to learn and innovate is what I’m looking for — the capacity to learn and absorb new technologies.”

Still, not everybody is suited to working for a startup, as they don’t tend to have the stability and many elements in place that bigger, more established companies tend to have, said Phil Bethell, senior director of manufacturing and engineering for Faraday Future.

For startups, he said, change is a constant, as “Our plans, our visions, they are maturing as we grow the company, and as we mature as a company, they may change. So you may be hired for one job and end up doing another job, and some people can’t deal with that.

“So, finally, people who are flexible, who are open to that change and open to adapt, that’s two of the critical things we always look for.”

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Want to work with Faraday Future?

To inquire about becoming a supplier or a service provider to Faraday Future, email your inquiry or information to hanford.suppliers@ff.com