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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 comes crawling back to its main investor
Faraday Future is ending its very tumultuous year on a positive note... in a manner of speaking. The electric car startup has reached a restructuring deal with its main investor, Evergrande Health's Season Smart, that will put legal battles in the past and potentially keep the money flowing. The two sides have dropped their earlier contract, and Faraday has pulled litigation that tried to force Evergrande to cough up cash. The pact both lifts a hold on the EV maker's assets and removes limitations on its equity financing, theoretically freeing it to take on financing that just wasn't an option before.
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 furloughs hundreds more employees
Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future is planning to furlough hundreds of its employees as a result of an ongoing dispute with the company's primary investor. The latest round of cuts, which will affect at least 250 employees, follows significant cut backs made by the company earlier this year.
Faraday Future co-founder reportedly resigns amid job furloughs (updated)
Faraday Future's struggles only appear to be getting worse. The Verge has obtained an email indicating that company co-founder Nick Sampson (above) has resigned, effective immediately. And he didn't mince words, according to the report. Faraday is "effectively insolvent" after the funding dispute with China's Evergrande, he said, and would "limp along" under the best of conditions. There were "insurmountable barriers" to overcoming the situation, Sampson added.
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.
Faraday Future confirms layoffs and wage cuts as struggles continue
The future of Faraday Future is starting to look bleak. The electric car startup has laid off part of its workforce and is slashed the wages of its employees by 20 percent, as first reported by The Verge and confirmed in a statement from a company spokesperson. The move comes as the company is in the middle of a standoff with the company's primary investor.
Faraday Future wants out of key financial deal
Things have mostly been looking up for Faraday Future lately, at least on the surface: it has a line of cash, testing has been in full swing, and it even started building pre-production electric cars at its US plant. The situation might not be quite as comfortable as it seems, though. A stock exchange filing has revealed that Faraday Future is pushing for arbitration that would cancel a deal to sell a 45 percent stake in the EV startup to China's Evergrande Health Industry Group. Faraday chief Jia Yueting accused Evergrande of not fulfilling its end of the bargain, which includes both buying the company with the 45 percent stake (Season Smart) for $860.2 million and paying two $600 million installments in 2019 and 2020.
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 Future lawsuit claims former exec stole trade secrets
Faraday Future's executive exodus last fall was bad enough, but the departure of one exec may have been particularly troublesome. The electric car startup has filed a lawsuit alleging that former CFO Stefan Krause stole trade secrets and poached staff as he left to form a startup, Evelozcity. Reportedly, Krause was quietly working at both Faraday and Evelozcity for weeks before he was formally let go, and encouraged staff to not only leave, but take secret info on the way out. Faraday had announced Krause's exit in November over "possible violations of law," and now it's clear what those might be.
Founder of troubled LeEco refuses to return to China
The founder of LeEco has reportedly refused to return to China to answer questions about his company's perilous financial situation. Reuters believes that Jia Yueting, who was ordered to return to his homeland by China's Securities Regulatory Commission has opted to remain in the US. In a statement, the elusive figure said that he was focused on fundraising for the LeEco-affiliated Faraday Future and couldn't travel. Consequently, Jia sent his brother, Jia Yuemin, to report back to authorities.
LeEco founder ordered to return to China to answer debts
The Chinese tech giant LeEco might have once been dubbed the "Netflix of China," but that lofty acclaim has made its fall from grace all the more brutal. Now, the company's founder, Jia Yueting, has been ordered to return to China by the country's Securities Regulatory Commission by the end of the month in order to face the company's incredible debts.
Faraday Future continues to struggle as three more executives depart
Faraday Future is having a tough year. The electric automotive startup began 2017 cutting its planned 7-car line down to 2 vehicles before scaling down the size of -- and then suspending -- a planned $1 billion Nevada production facility. Today brings more woes, as news emerged that three top executives are leaving or have already left Faraday, including chief financial officer Stefan Krause.
Faraday Future leases new California plant amidst financial uncertainty
After seemingly abandoning its plans to open a manufacturing plant in Las Vegas, electric car maker Faraday Future has found a new home. The company has signed a lease for a 1,000,000-square foot facility in Hanford, California, and more than 500 employees were already onsite last Saturday decorating the building.
Inside LeEco's spectacular fall from grace
With additional reporting by Chris Ip and Richard Lai. Behind the doors of the five-star Bohao Radegast Hotel in Beijing's central business district on Monday, troubled Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco held an extraordinary shareholder's meeting to elect new directors. Outside, some two dozen protesters set up tables and held up signs asking to be paid what they were owed for services rendered. According to multiple reports, they had come from 20 cities all over China and were reportedly due about 33 million yuan (around $5 million) in all. Many of them demanded to see Jia Yueting, but the company's billionaire founder and public face was nowhere to be seen. LeEco's fall from grace has been spectacular. Once hailed as the "Netflix of China," the daring startup and its then-outspoken founder were bold enough to challenge Tesla and criticize Apple as "outdated." But in recent months, the company has faced a series of setbacks, and may be reaching its breaking point. Jia stepped down as chairman and CEO in May, while the company continues to fend off unhappy vendors who are protesting outside its Beijing headquarters. On the other side of the Pacific, LeEco has also massively scaled back its American operations, laying off hundreds of workers in the process, while facing two lawsuits from US TV maker Vizio. Faraday Future, a futuristic car company with close ties to LeEco, recently canceled its plans to build a $1 billion plant in Nevada as well. This is the tale of a company that grew too quickly. It shows how a ravenous appetite for growth without a solid financial foundation can cause a business to topple. Simply tracing LeEco's cash flow is a Herculean task, since its financial activity is obscured by a dizzying organizational structure comprising a publicly listed holdings company, privately owned organization and dozens of subsidiaries. It's incredible that LeEco was able to continue operations for as long as it did without getting into any real legal trouble. But since 2016, it has been slammed with several lawsuits. Manufacturing partners in Asia, including Zhejiang Haosheng Electronic Technology, Compal Electronics and Truly International Holdings have sued for outstanding debt. The most recent significant case was Vizio's $100 million claim for a failed $2 billion acquisition. From interviews Engadget conducted with unpaid vendors, former employees and investors, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their careers, it became apparent that LeEco's future may be in serious trouble.
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.
