Faraday Future, an electric car start-up launched in the US and funded by a Chinese billionaire, was seriously considered to be a major rival-in-the-making for Elon Musk’s Telsa Motors – with some even so bold as to dub the company a “Tesla-killer” – as recently as last year. Low funds and a mass exodus of executive staff, though, has left Faraday Future struggling to survive, compounded by the fact that it has so far failed to manufacture a decent car.
Prior to CES 2017, Faraday Future was desperate to inspire investors to keep the company afloat. Business Insider spoke to a number of anonymous executives about the company’s hopes prior to the event, with some admitting that, if it failed to attract funding, Faraday Future could be gone by mid-2017.
“Business Insider interviewed eight people with intimate knowledge of Faraday Future’s business to learn about the state of affairs leading up to the CES presentation,” Bryan Logan reports. “All the executives spoke on condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely.”
“They described a business in shambles, with more than a half-dozen senior executives departing since last spring — including Faraday’s global CEO, who had left just before CES,” Logan explains. “The current and former Faraday insiders also describe millions of dollars in unpaid bills, and a chaotic corporate structure between Faraday’s US and Chinese operations. The most immediate of Faraday’s problems is its cash shortage, insiders said. “If CES doesn’t bring in fresh investors, it’s over between February and May,” one source close to the company told Business Insider.”
The report from Business Insider details exactly how the once-promising Faraday Future ended up in this mess. One insider summed the company’s future up gravely: “If they can’t figure out a way to get the money out of China in the next 60 days, the suppliers would essentially force them into bankruptcy.”
