Faraday Future has officially opened itself to "potential investors from around the world." The electric-car start-up said it has begun exploring strategic options, according to a Thursday Reuters report, and hopes to attract new investors. Options include debt and equity financing.
This year has been full of ups and downs for the fledgling electric-car maker. After securing an investment deal totaling $2 billion from Chinese conglomerate Evergrande Health Industry Group Ltd., the company built its first body-in-white and pre-production examples of its first planned model, the FF91. However, after celebrating the first pre-production car, Faraday Future and Evergrande Health entered arbitration over a funding dispute.
A court ruling last month in China declared Evergrande Health cannot stand in the way as the company seeks new investment.
Meanwhile, it's unclear if Faraday Future will receive the rest of the $2 billion investment. Evergrande reportedly hadn't paid the electric-car startup $700 million.
The call for new investment also came just two days after the company's co-founder and senior vice president of product R&D and engineering, Nick Sampson, stepped down from his role. Sampson was the second of three Faraday Future co-founders to depart the company. Only CEO Jia Yueting remains.
While Faraday Future sorts out its finances, the company has enacted wage cuts and plans for layoffs. Executives have volunteered to take pay cuts of more than 20 percent, while other employees will be subject to mandatory 20-percent pay reductions. CEO Yueting opted to take $1 annually as CEO. It's unclear how many employees the company plans to lay off, and from which departments they will come.
Thus far, no potential investors have publicly stepped forward to help put Faraday Future back on track, but the latest developments will likely push back the FF91's production timeline. The company declared earlier this year that customer deliveries of its first electric car would begin in the first half of 2019. That target now appears to be in jeopardy.