Faraday Future hits the brakes on its $1 billion electric car factory in Nevada
Faraday Future, the beleaguered electric car company, hit another roadblock.
This week the company revealed it was shutting down construction of the massive $1 billion, 3 million-square foot manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas it announced last year.
It hasn't been a smooth ride, so it's not a total surprise that the company is halting the project. Back in November, cash problems left contractors unpaid, and plans were re-evaluated. A smaller building was designed and slated to open this fall.
Now, even those scaled-down plans have been scrapped.
The company still plans to begin production of its FF 91 by 2018 even though the factory isn't happening. The car is slated to be an electric, autonomous hatchback sedan with 1,050 horsepower that can go from zero to 60 MPH in 2.4 seconds -- basically, a Tesla rival.
In an emailed statement, the company said it had "decided to put a hold on our manufacturing plan in Nevada." But it doesn't sound like Faraday Future is giving up on the 900-acre site it purchased. "[We] firmly believe North Las Vegas is an ideal place for us to be," the statement continued, without explaining what might go up instead of the factory.
Also, the company is still dealing with money problems. One of its major investors, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, had $180 million in assets frozen in a Shanghai court, according to the AP. Faraday Future says those issues aren't related to the construction shut-down.
But if it wants to get its cars on the road it needs to find a production facility -- and ASAP.
"We are in the process of identifying a manufacturing facility that presents a faster path to start-of-production," the company said in its statement, which also promised more details on its "new strategy" in the coming weeks.
The Nevada car plant was originally touted as a job creator that would bring 4,500 jobs over 10 years. It also was going to have an "open air concept" with glass panels and courtyards and social spaces.
That vision of the future just hit the road.
Topics Electric Vehicles
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
