I can’t say whether Tesla Motors and Faraday Future will both be successful electric-vehicle companies, but I can say there’s room for two EV makers. In fact, there’s room enough if all car makers go electric, the way it was when all manufacturers were working with fossil fuels. Faraday seems to have an Amazonian approach to profits: Get the “gadget” into consumer hands and make money from apps and subscriptions.

From Nathan Pemberton at New York:

Is there room enough for both Tesla Motors and Faraday Future in our electric-car, uh, future? A Chinese billionaire is backing what hopes to be a rival to Elon Musk’s enterprise. The 18-month-old company, based out of Southern California, aims to roll out its first long-range, premium model, comparable to Tesla’s Model S, by 2017. The engineer who oversaw the chassis design of the Model S, Nick Sampson, is now Faraday’s research-and-development chief.

The billionaire backer is Jia Yueting, founder of LeTV (“China’s Netflix”). A partner of Yueting is listed on the incorporating documents as chief executive. There have been some rumors of the company being an Apple-affiliated venture; Apple is said to want to get into the car business. In any case, Sampson has said the car will be more like a smartphone.

“Our business model is not based around moving a car out of the dealer,” Sampson said. “We envision this like a smart phone. The revenue starts once you get the device in the owners’ hands. We’re looking at subscriptions and apps and other opportunities.” This could include car-sharing services, which already operate off your phone.•