Faraday Future won't necessarily end 2017 on a high note. The company's chief designer, Richard Kim, tendered his resignation on November 27, The Verge reported last Friday. Kim is a former BMW designer and one of the earlier hires at the fledgling electric-car company.
The report said Kim had discussed leaving for about two or three months before officially handing in his resignation. His final day was December 1. The designer brought his expertise from BMW, where he helped shape the i3 and i8 electric cars. Kim was responsible for bringing Faraday's FF91 to life, which debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show at the beginning of 2017.
It's been an incredibly rough year for the company. After its main backer, the Chinese multinational conglomerate LeEco, ran into substantial financial issues, it throttled back funding. Faraday Future nixed plans for its $1 billion factory in Nevada, opting instead for a turn-key facility in California after an emergency loan from a venture capital firm.
Things didn't pick up from there, though. The company fired two additional executives, Chief Financial Officer Stefan Krause and Chief Technology Officer Ulrich Kranz, last month. The two execs, also from BMW, were brought on to help steer the company in a positive direction. Faraday Future and Krause ended things on poor terms after the company claimed the exec hindered fundraising efforts.
The latest departure of Kim reportedly diminished morale around the office. According to the report, an email obtained from Allan Lu, head of marketing, describes employees either not showing up to work or coming in late. The email made reference to a morning meeting with main financial backer Jia Yueting, who founded LeEco, and potential investors that proved to be an embarrassment because only two employees were in the office at that time.