VIDEO: Faraday Futures teases new pure-electric SUV

Faradays Futures has released a new video of its first car testing at what's thought to be a private test track in southern California.

The short 15-second film clip, entitled "Can't Hear The Engine", surfaced over the weekend and shows the fledgling car-maker's first ever vehicle driving quickly on a race track.

The as-yet-unnamed vehicle is being created to go head-to-head with both the Tesla Model S and Model X, plus new pure-electric competition from more established car-makers like Audi and even Jaguar.

Unfortunately, other than the impressive burst of pace shown by the prototype (that could have been down to the video edit), little is still known about the crossover.

Recently caught testing south of Los Angeles, ahead of the video's release, it's known beneath the mule's camouflage lies a design penned by former BMW i3 and i8 designer, Richard Kim.

Looking more like a jacked-up people-mover, rather than a traditional SUV, the prototype looks like it will be a close match to the current Model X.

Expect the Faraday Futures SUV to come with a range of at least 500km and for it to come with at least a 100kWh lithium ion battery and three electric motors -- two powering the rear axle and one powering the front.

Combined, it's likely the range-topping version of the firm's first production car will produce around 400kW/900Nm and hit 100km/h in less than five seconds and have a limited top speed of 250km/h.

It's thought a final, close-to-production, concept will be unveiled in 2017 at the CES in Las Vegas in early January, before Faraday Future launches its first car sometime in 2018.

Earlier this year the Chinese-backed US car-maker announced that it had broken ground on a new 900-acre factory in the state of Nevada and would invest $1 billion and create 4500 jobs.