Faraday Future says production of FF91 depends on timely funding

It’s never a boring week at faraday Future - if not a fire then the boardroom shakeup or fraud accusations and quiet settlements. And among all that drama the company is actually still trying to deliver what it calls a ground-shaking rule-breaking electric car.

The company just held its Global Investor Business Update during which it confirmed it is looking for additional funding of up to $170 million. The funds are needed to begin the production of the FF91, the first electric car from the company. The plan apparently is - if the funds are in place - to start the production in March with first customer deliveries to begin in April of 2023.

There are a couple of issues though - first the stakeholders will have to authorize issuing of additional shares which at the current price of $0.35 means nearly half a billion of new shares.

Then there is the fact that the clock is ticking and the company is actually facing a “lights out” moment if the funding is not approved in time. And then there is the overall effect the extra half-a-billion of shares will have on the already freezing-cold market.

Faraday Future claims it already has a binding investment letter from one of the existing investors to the tune of $30 million which, if it materializes, can help to keep the lights on for a few weeks while the bigger investment is organized. Never a dull day.

While the drama goes on, the engineers and designers managed to perform serious upgrades to the entire vehicle. No less than 26 major systems and components were apparently upgraded including powertrain, battery, charging, chassis and interior. Computing, sensing, communication and user interactions were upgraded as well making sure that if the car manages to reach production, it is going to be as good as it gets.

The curious part of the presentation was the choice of competitors by Faraday Future for its upcoming FF91. No other than Maybach S680 and Rolls-Royce Cullinan were stacked against the FF91 and presumably they both miserably lost in comparison.

The company pointed out that both competitors have about half the power and less range than the FF91. Nobody flinched during the presentation - both the Maybach and RR debuted way after the FF91 and they both are already selling.

Faraday Future has high hopes for the FF91 and on paper the car is impressive. The interior is vast and the performance is perception-altering - but that’s only as good as the paper it is printed on. The design of the car is not the easiest on the eye and in all honesty it’s hard to imagine an RR customer swapping the Cullinan for FF91.

Let’s hope this saga ends well, the finish line is tantalizingly close and the FF91 is an interesting car. But the competition hasn’t been sleeping for the last five years. We have Lotus Eletre, we have Lucid Air Sapphire, Mercedes fans have the EQS SUV with Maybach soon to release its own version of it.

If Faraday Future takes even more time, the Rolls-Royce Spectre will beat it to a punch and that will be the end. Although - again - it’s hard to imagine RR customers switching to Faraday Future. They would rather go and buy the Cadillac Celestiq.

Via