Electric car company Faraday Future (FF) looks on course to launch its first model later this year after it received £1.5 billion worth of investment from a Hong Kong holding company.
The money, supplied by Evergrande Health, adds to the £750 million Faraday Future raised last year by selling off shares. The cash injection means plans to put the FF 91 electric saloon (above), a future rival to the Tesla Model S, into production, can go forward – something Jia Yueting, FF’s founder, has said will take place later this year.
The FF 91 is powered by a 130kWh battery and uses Faraday Future’s patented Echelon Inverter, which the company claims can transform more energy while using less space.
It is claimed to be capable of gaining 500 miles worth of charge per hour and comes with a home charger that can fill the battery to 50% in less than 4.5 hours at 240V. Faraday Future says it predicts the car will offer a range of more than 435 miles in New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) tests.
Will Faraday Future take Tesla’s electric crown?
The car will first be launched in China and the US, with production for each market handled within each country. FF will open facilities in Hanford, California and in Guangzhou Nansha, China. The former is an existing plant that is being refurbished; it replaces plans for an all-new site in Nevada, Texas, which took a hit when construction contractor AECOM claimed a payment of $21m (£16m) was late.
Securing investment has U-turned Faraday Future from the path it was on last year. The firm lost several high-level executives in close successor to cast doubt on the firm’s future. Former chief financial officer Stefan Krause resigned in October and chief technology officer Ulrich Kranz’s contract was terminated.
Faraday Future said that the changes had no impact upon its ongoing research and development process. It also showed no signs of slowing demand for its FF 91, which has recieved more than 64,000 orders.
More content:
235mph Lucid Air due in 2019 as electric BMW 7 Series rival
Pikes Peak 2018: electric Volkswagen ID R Pikes Peak smashes overall record