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Record-breaking Faraday Future prototype EVs are up for auction
Remember Faraday Future? A Faraday Future EV comparable to anything Tesla offers never materialized, though the company is still around. This vehicle’s real value is in its collectability.
Faraday Future CEO will reportedly resign as part of restructuring plan
Faraday Future isn't just relying on its recent bailout to bring its electric car plans back on track. According to Pandaily, it's embarking on a restructuring plan that will see its polarizing CEO Jia Yueting step down. He's reportedly aiming to address both the company's debt and his own, and will set up a trust fund (paid with his Faraday Future shares) to repay creditors. He's betting that a future initial public offering will net enough funds to clear the debts. The executive will also sell an unspecified number of his shares.
Faraday Future's EV dreams live on with (another) bailout
Now that Faraday Future has parted ways with its last partner, Chinese real estate firm Evergrande, money seems to be flowing in again. After getting a $600 million injection from mobile gaming company The9 Limited, Faraday announced that it has scored another $225 million in bridge financing via a funding round led by Birch Lake Associates. The cash will be used to bring the company flagship FF91 EV to market and reassure jittery suppliers that the company is still on sound footing.
Faraday Future gets another lifeline to build EVs in China
Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future, which has been on life support for the past couple of years, has received a surprise cash injection from a mobile gaming company called The9 Limited. The9 will inject up to $600 million into Faraday, which it will use to build a new car called the V9 (based on its FF91 pre-production car) in China. The joint venture said it will build up to 300,000 EVs, with the first pre-production model scheduled to be arrive by 2020. It will also try to launch the FF91 into production in the US this year, Faraday said.
Faraday Future had the worst year possible for an EV startup
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Faraday Future is almost out of cash. At the tail end of 2017, the much-hyped EV startup was sliding toward financial oblivion. But then a crucial round of funding from a then-mysterious benefactor gave the team a lifeline. Faraday planned to finish its first car, the FF 91, and start production before 2019. Like Tesla, the company wanted to usher in a new wave of electric, autonomous and "seamlessly connected" vehicles. But unlike its closest rival, Faraday hasn't spent the past year building and shipping transformative cars. Instead, it's been fighting the investor that decided to bail it out.
Faraday Future cites arbitration victory despite layoffs
Earlier this week, electric car startup Faraday Future confirmed that it laid off a number of employees and cut the salaries of those who remained. According to the company, it was running out of money because of the actions of an investor, China's Evergrande Health Industry Group. Now Faraday says it obtained a "decisive" victory through arbitration, which will allow it to seek out funding from others.
Watch Faraday Future's high-speed FF 91 field tests
Faraday Future hasn't given up on the FF 91 despite going through a financial crisis and losing executives along the way. Now, a few months after a Hong Kong investor reportedly threw the startup a $1.5 billion lifeline, it has dropped a new video showing the tests it recently conducted to validate the luxury EV's battery, thermal and powertrain controls. The company's engineers staged what they call the "Autobahn drive cycle" and "Operation 120 mph" tests, which are critical to the FF 91's engineering process. Chou Yeh, Faraday's Senior Manager of Powertrain and Thermal Controls, said the tests will help "eliminate issues before they arise and [continue] to add value to the vehicle during the final stages of verification."
Faraday Future may have received a $1.5 billion lifeline
To say Faraday Future has had a rough time would be an understatement between its financial crisis, executive exodus and CEO troubles. However, things might be looking up for the electric car maker. A Business Insider source has claimed that an unnamed Hong Kong backer has promised a $1.5 billion investment, $550 million of which is "already in the bank." That only goes so far with an automaker, but it's reportedly enough to speed up development of the FF91 and get it on the market by the end of 2018.
Faraday abandons its proposed $1 billion Nevada factory
It's starting to seem like Faraday Future is capable of just about anything that isn't related to the business side of being an automaker. The company's plans for a $1-billion Las Vegas production facility had been delayed before, but now the plant has been scrapped wholesale. The Nevada Independent reports that Faraday will now attempt to build something smaller than the initial 13,000-job factory thanks to hundreds of billions in frozen funds from parent company LeEco.
Faraday Future will test its electric SUV by climbing Pikes Peak
Faraday Future announced that one of its FF 91 pre-production vehicles will be participating in the 2017 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The company says the race will be the first in a series of public tests of the high-end electric SUV.
Faraday Future is scaling back its EV production plans
The troubles for Faraday Future don't seem to have an end in sight. According to Reuters, the company's making drastic changes to its production roadmap: Rather than building seven electric vehicles in the foreseeable future, as was originally planned, that will shift to only two. But there's more. Faraday Future is reportedly also scaling down its vision for a 3-million-square-foot plant in Nevada, which is now expected to be 650,000 square feet -- quite a downgrade.
Faraday Future sued over missed payments on $2 million VR video (update)
Faraday Future may have had a new car to show off at CES earlier this month, but everyone's left Las Vegas and old problems are cropping up. Now, the company is being sued by a video effects company for failure to pay for a virtual fly-through of one of its concept vehicles. Last September The Mill gave Faraday an estimate for how much it'd cost to produce a "graphic presentation with virtual reality, augmented reality and holographic components" for January's trade show, according to court documents obtained by Jalopnik.
Tesla's Ludicrous Plus mode beats Faraday Future's 0-60 time
Faraday Future claims its FF 91 SUV will be the fastest accelerating production vehicle to date with a 0-60 mph time of 2.39 seconds, but we're going to need a more precise stopwatch if the showdown with Tesla is going to continue. In a real-world track test, the folks from Tesla Racing Channel were able to just barely edge out the FF 91's time in a Model S P100D sedan with the latest Ludicrous Plus mode update unlocked. The Tesla's new track time? A blistering 2.389 seconds -- besting Faraday by just a thousandth of a second.
Faraday Future impressed all the right people at CES
The world got its first look at the Faraday Future FF 91 SUV during a Las Vegas drag race last week. It was a fitting debut for a car that was designed and built in less than two years: It flew off the line in an event building, only to disappear out of sight a moment later. Everyone likes a good race, but for a company that's recently been hit by financial troubles and departing executives, the race it started at CES needs to be a marathon.
AI 'friends' will help you pass the time on autonomous drives
Even more so than last year, CES 2017 was the unofficial auto show for the tech world. Automakers filled the North Hall and the Gold Lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center with self-driving prototypes and concept cars. But instead of talking about the power of Lidar or number-crunching processors, many started focusing on what the hell their passengers will do once they take their hands off the wheel.
Faraday Future's first car secures over 64,000 reservations
EV-maker Faraday Future says it has received 64,124 reservations for the car it unveiled at CES within 36 hours of the event. Sure, that's nowhere near the 232,000 pre-orders Tesla got for Model 3 in a day, but we're talking about company that has yet to release a product -- in fact, the model it presented at CES (an SUV called the FF 91) is its first car ever. Sadly, Faraday Future didn't say how many paid $5,000 for priority reservation and how many opted for the free standard option. That means we also can't say if it racked up enough money to keep going.
A whirlwind tour of Faraday Future's ambitious new SUV
"Just a quick reminder that there are no pictures during today's tour." Faraday Future has had its share of bad press. Right before Christmas it invited a group of journalists to tour its headquarters in Gardena, California. The new company was unveiling its first real car at CES in a few weeks. But instead of wowing the world with its nonstop teaser videos, the company's shedding of executives and reports about its financial turmoil drew the most attention. Faraday needed to make a big impression ahead of CES while also ensuring that the technology-drenched FF 91 SUV and the secret sauce behind it were kept under wraps until its big press conference, scheduled for Jan. 3rd in Las Vegas.
Faraday Future unveils an actual car
It's happened. Faraday Future has unveiled its high-tech electric FF 91 SUV. Interested parties can place a refundable $5,000 deposit on the car right now, with production starting in 2018. With a range of 378 miles (it has a 130kWh pack), all-wheel drive, all-wheel turning and 1,050 horsepower, it clearly has the Telsa Model 3 in its sights.
