Faraday Future Halts Construction of $1 billion Factory in Nevada

Faraday Future said today that it's officially halting efforts to build a $1 billion production factory in Nevada. This comes just one week after its strongest backer Yueting Jia was facing LeEco's financial crisis.

According to Jalopnik, days ago Faraday Future officials said that Jia's financial trouble will have "no impact" on Faraday's daily operations and the mass production of FF91. The flagship model from Faraday Future premiered in January at this year's CES in Las Vegas.  

In a statement to the Nevada Independent, Faraday's chief financial officer Stefan Krause said FF is now planning to shift its business strategy, with the goal of raising $1 billion for its long-term development.

"We have decided to put a hold on our factory at the Apex site in North Las Vegas. We remain committed to the Apex site in Las Vegas for long-term vehicle manufacturing," Krause said in the statement.

The state of Nevada has welcomed Faraday Future to build its factory there with a $335 million tax incentive package. It expects the automaker to create some 13,000 jobs across southern Nevada. State regulators reportedly said on Monday that no public money will be lost on FF, as the majority of the factory projects have yet to commence.

The company then told Jalopnik that its business strategy will now focus on positioning "the company as the leader in user-ship personal mobility-a vehicle usage model that reimagines the way users access mobility."

"As a result of this shift in direction, we are in the final stages of confirming a new manufacturing facility that presents a faster path to start-of-production and aligns with future strategic options" the statement said.

Many have speculated that the remark suggests that the company is shifting to ride-sharing service. But the secretive company did not give more details on its current status. Media reports suggest that Faraday is looking to close a deal on one of a few potential sites, likely in California and Nevada, hoping to launch production in the near future and sell its flagship product FF91 by the end of 2018.

Last week, YT Jia backed out from LeEco's chairman position and said he will be fully committed to "revolutionize the automotive industry", and focus on "realizing the mass-production of FF91". Clearly Jia and FF are still tightly connected. Whether the young automaker can survive its current troubles and disrupt the whole industry is anyone's guess.