We Hear: Faraday Future Scaling Back Factory and Production Ambitions

A report from Reuters claims electric car startup Faraday Future will drastically scale back its ambitious plans, reducing the size of its upcoming factory in Nevada and slashing its product portfolio by more than half.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with Faraday’s plans, the EV automaker is now focusing on two vehicles instead of seven. One of those models is the FF 91 (unveiled at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show last month) and the FF 81 crossover aimed at the Tesla Model X.

Faraday is still committed to building its new factory in North Las Vegas, Nev., but a city official says the company revised the facility’s size from 3 million square feet down to 650,000 square feet. Reuter the factory is now slated to open in 2019, almost two years later than Faraday’s original target date.

Faraday’s struggles have been well-documented in recent months. Missed payments to contractors and Nevada state officials forced the company to halt construction at its upcoming facility last fall. On top of that, a number of suppliers and vendors have sued Faraday for non-payment including seat manufacturer Futuris, Reuters reports.

The report appears to confirm an announcement made last fall by Jia Yueting, the Chinese billionaire backing Faraday and another EV startup LeEco. In a letter Jia wrote to company employees and shareholders, he admitted “we blindly sped ahead” and would be executing company-wide cutbacks.

Source: Reuters

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