By CHEN Xiaotong
The delivery of Faraday Future’s first model has been put off again. The company said on Thursday said it needs “substantial additional financing” to pay suppliers and complete crash tests.
It will be no surprise to avid FF watchers that the company has only about US$30 million (205 million yuan) cash left. The company said in February that it secured US$125 million to start mass production in March.
Previously, Faraday Future promised to roll off the first FF91 unit from the assembly line on Saturday.
JIA Yueting founded Faraday Future in 2014 and began talking about the FF91 three years later. Production was supposed to start in 2018 but was postponed again and again until March 30 this year.
Faraday Future claims that more than 64,000 orders were placed, but most were purchase intentions without any down payment. It’s not clear whether FF has any real orders at all from buyers unconnected with the company, nor is clear whether any vehicles will ever emerge from the California factory.
Jia has decided to deliver the FF91 first to industry experts or “FF collaborators,” and then to those who placed down payments. If anyone else wants an FF91, they will have to wait.
By the end of last year, Faraday Future had lost more than US$3.4 billion, US$550 million in 2022 alone.
