LAS VEGAS: LeEco CEO Jia Yueting (left) and Nick Sampson, Faraday Future’s senior vice president of product research and development, shake hands after unveiling the FF91 electric car at CES on Tuesday. — AP

LAS VEGAS: Faraday Future, the secretive electric car startup with ambitions to overtake Tesla, unveiled its first production vehicle Tuesday, proclaiming it to be a “new species” for personal transportation.

The company, backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting (YT Jia), announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it would begin taking reservations for deliveries in 2018 with a $5,000 deposit for its FF91 model. Faraday, which last year unveiled its prototype and is building a factory outside Las Vegas, did not offer details on pricing of the new vehicle. But it touted specifications on battery range, power and acceleration which pointed to a highend vehicle, outperforming Tesla on key benchmarks.

In one key benchmark, the Faraday offers an estimated 378 miles (604 kilometers) of range before needed recharging, based on US testing standards, better than Tesla’s 315 miles. Based on European testing standards, the range is 700 kilometers or some 435 miles. “This is day one of a new era of mobility,” said executive vice president of engineering Nick Sampson.

“This is the first of a new species.” Because Faraday started from scratch, “we don’t have to follow outdated practices or retrofit existing equipment,” Sampson said. “We have to flip the auto industry on its head.” The vehicle is packed with technology: It has a semiautonomous mode which allows for self-parking, and multiple modems to connect to the internet. It personalizes settings for each driver and occupant. “Everyone in the car will have their own seat configured for them,” Sampson said. — AFP