Faraday’s future is secured for the time being.
Embattled EV startup Faraday Future was seemingly given a lifeline at the eleventh hour, after multiple reports emerged that the firm would run out of cash and run itself into the ground at the end of last year. At the time, de-facto FF boss Jia Yueting declared all was right with the world, and they’d secured a fat investor that’ll keep the lights and A/C on until the company was ready to release its debut model, the enormous and weird FF91.
That was six months ago. And since then, there’s been an enormous question looming over the company: Who the hell gave them US$2-billion for a 45% stake?
It seems that it’s a question that Faraday’s been keen to dodge, until now. The mysterious, scandal-riddled firm has revealed that its big-fish investor came from the Evergrande Group, an enormous property-based conglomerate from China.
The investment has thus far been broken up into three tranches, according to sources who spoke to The Verge, with the first US$800-million used to service debt obligations that the company had racked up, and to push forwards development of the FF91 debut model. Details of the remaining two tranches of US$600-million each were not discussed, but it’s understood that they are tied to certain developmental milestones, and are redeemable by December 31st 2019 (or sooner) for the first tranche, and by December 31st 2020 (or sooner) for the second tranche.
With the investment by Evergrande, the property company has appointed two of its own chairman to the board of directors at Faraday Future, while they also added a clause that transfers voting shares within FF Top Holdings (the company that ultimately controls Faraday Future, that Evergrande bought into) to Evergrande’s representatives should Jia Yueting be “unable to perform [his] duties” as the CEO of the company.
Founding executives and employees have left the company in droves, including CFO Stefan Krause and CTO Ulrich Kranz (both formerly of BMW, which descended into its own mini-scandal), as well as Tony Nie, a senior vice president at FF that was previously of Lotus. Of the founding executives, only Jia Yueting and Nick Sampson (VP of product strategy) remain.
We have previously hit out at Faraday for its boastful language, lacklustre showings, laughable management, and ridiculous marketing ploys. And while we certainly weren’t waiting with bated breath to hear of its death late last year, it seems like they’ll live on to be the butt of our jokes for a little while longer.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom as we bring you more updates as they come.
