Remember Faraday Future? The cash-strapped electric car startup hasn't been in the headlines of late but it isn't dead yet.
In fact, the company may have been thrown a lifeline in the form of a stake sale to Hong Kong firm Evergrande Health Industry Group, a subsidiary of property developer China Evergrande Group, which is looking to diversify into new sectors.
In a filing made on Monday, Evergrande Health Industry said it would buy the shares of Season Smart Ltd, which owns 45 percent of Faraday Future. Season Smart originally agreed to pay $2 billion for the stake but has only paid $800 million to date. As part of the deal, Evergrande Health Industry will pay $860.15 million to Season Smart and the balance of the $2 billion to Faraday Future with a loan, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Faraday Future was founded by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting, whose tech company LeEco has been battling a cash crunch since November 2016. This has thrown a spanner into the works for Faraday Future as Jia was its main backer. According to Reuters, the company lost $339.6 million in 2017.
In February, Faraday Future received a $1.5 billion investment where $550 million was paid directly and the payment of the balance conditional on certain milestones being met. Immediately after the deal was struck, Faraday Future held a meeting with suppliers of its first model, the FF91 SUV, and teased a second model, another SUV.
Faraday Future remains hopeful of getting getting the FF91 into production at a plant in Hanford, California by the end of 2018.
