Faraday Future pushes back EV deliveries, looking for cash

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Electric vehicle (EV) startup Faraday Future Intelligent Electric on Thursday pushed back initial deliveries of its flagship FF 91 Futurist by another two months, saying they would depend on “substantial additional financing”.

The Los Angeles-based company said it was down to about $30 million in cash as of Tuesday and deliveries of the sport-utility vehicle, its first production model, would depend on “sufficient” funding, receiving parts in time from suppliers, as well as completing necessary crash tests.

Still, the company said its first vehicle would come off the production line on Friday, and shares rose 13% to $0.31. They hit a high of $1.32 in February after a funding announcement and had fallen 80% since then.

Faraday Future on Thursday said it was in discussions with additional potential investors to secure the funding.

Many EV startups, including Nikola and Lordstown Motors, are still coming to grips with supply-chain bottlenecks sparked by the pandemic and have been scrambling for funds to continue production as a weaker economic outlook has dented consumer sentiment.

Faraday Future has been struggling with a cash crunch and a board reshuffle following a governance dispute with one of its largest shareholders, FF Top Holding. Last November, Faraday Future raised doubts about its ability to continue as a “going concern”.

But the company managed to secure enough funds in February to start much-delayed production of the FF 91 Futurist last month.

Deliveries, originally slated to start in late 2022, had been pushed back to the end of April. On Thursday, the company said certain customers, who paid for the vehicle in full in May would be able to start receiving FF 91’s from the end of June.

The further delay would “help to mitigate any production capacity shortfalls versus anticipated market demand,” the company said, adding its suppliers had been unable to meet its earlier timeline.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Jamie Freed)