EV startup Faraday Future launching China operation
Faraday Future has set-up its operating headquarters in China, according to Evergrande Health, which owns a 45 percent stake in the electric vehicle startup. Five more bases for research and development are to follow across the country in the next ten years.
The new headquarters, called Evergrande FF Intelligent Automotive (China) Co., Ltd, will take over technology research and development, as well as all the entire production, operation and management of FF in China.
Faraday Future has come back from the (almost) dead lately through a two-billion-dollar infusion. First Season Smart had promised the investment but had handed over the deal to Evergrande (we reported). The property developer is to pour the outstanding 1.2 billion dollars into Faraday Future after they had bought the 45% stake from Season Smart reportedly.
Prior to the offer of a helping hand, the electric car venture had almost nothing but financial problems, mostly due to its founder and LeEco boss Jia Yueting. He remains as CEO at Faraday Future and the startup says the funding will help them build production facilities as well as to progress in R&D. In addition, Michael Agosta has taken over as CFO. He succeeded Stefan Krause, who had left Faraday Future in order to work with Evelozcity set up by another FF employee; Ulrich Kranz.
Apart from their new base in China, Faraday Future has also been progressing its home base in the USA. Evergrande Health says FF’s first electric vehicle, FF91, has arrived in the United States and that assembly has begun at the Hanford factory. The FF 91 is the first serial model by the Chinese-American company, and is designed for autonomous driving. Features include a four-wheel drive with 782 kW performance and an NEFZ range of 700 km. The electric vehicle debuted at the CES 2017.
Evergrande and Faraday Future say they are gearing up to make up to five million electric cars per year in both China and the United States.
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