Faraday scales back EV factory plans in U.S.

Does Faraday Future have a future?

Electric luxury car startup Faraday Future, one of several Chinese-funded companies taking aim at Tesla Inc., is throttling back its plans to build vehicles in the United States, the company and public officials said.

Faraday, an affiliate of Beijing-based Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp., also has pared its planned product portfolio down from seven to two models, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the company's plans.

Faraday will build a much smaller auto assembly plant than originally planned in North Las Vegas, a city official said.

North Las Vegas city manager Qiong Liu said Faraday told the city that it will launch construction this year on a 60,390-square-meter factory on the site of a plant that originally was planned to be nearly five times larger.

The downsizing follows an acknowledgment last fall by the company's founder, Chinese tech entrepreneur Jia Yueting, that the company’s global operations were overextended. Former Faraday executives have said the company struggled with cash-flow issues almost from its inception.

At least a dozen key U.S. executives have departed Faraday in the last nine months, according to the company and several of those executives.

Faraday, in a statement, said it still plans to build the larger plant eventually, but gave no timetable.

Faraday is still hiring contractors to begin building the factory shell, according to a source familiar with the plans, but there is no firm date for completion.

"We remain committed to the State of Nevada and are continuing our $1 billion (6.9 billion yuan) investment in the region over the next few years," Faraday said in the statement. Reuters/AutoNews