Faraday Future has made a lot of wild claims, but does it really have what it takes to be the next Tesla? Nevada’s state treasurer went to China last week to meet with Leshi, the parent company of Faraday Future, over concerns with the company delaying its promised $1 billion in investment funding for a new manufacturing facility.
Late last year the Nevada’s state legislature held an emergency meeting to secure Faraday Future’s plans for constructing an automotive manufacturing facility. Following the company’s reveal of Big Ideas and an imaginary supercar concept at CES, plans for breaking ground on the factory in late January were apparently delayed as a result of Faraday Future’s Chinese parent company Leshi temporarily backing out of the Chinese stock exchange.
According to KUNR, Reno’s local NPR radio station, Nevada Treasurer Dan Schwartz traveled to China last week to confront parent company Leshi and investor Jia Yueting over the $1 billion in investment financing for the Nevada factory. Schwartz is holding off on $175 million in state bonds to help finance the factory until it is assured that the promised investment amount from Yueting is set aside for Nevada.
From the KUNR article last Friday:
“I will need to hear that indeed Mr. Jia, has either sent the money to the United States,” Schwartz said, “so It’s money he has personally available to him and it’s sitting in a U.S. bank account ready to be invested in Faraday.”
Schwartz went on to stress that despite his concerns, he still supports bringing the electric automaker’s manufacturing to Nevada, which has now secured both Faraday Future and Tesla Motor’s major manufacturing facilities.
Though there is cause for concern; Faraday Future has yet to actually provide evidence of a viable concept, despite many reports of a concept and prototype existing. There’s also the issue of company representatives dodging questions when hard pressed about the viability of creating a roadworthy fully-electric autonomous passenger car from scratch.
The biggest concern, perhaps, is that a personal trans-continental visit from the state treasurer is required just a few short months into Nevada’s deal with the company.
Jalopnik reached out to Faraday Future for comment but has not heard back at the time of publishing this article. We will update as we have more.
Photo: Faraday Future
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