Faraday Future looked like it had turned things around, announcing last month the start of production of the much-delayed FF91 Futurist. Not many people thought the company would make it to that point as late last year they warned they were on the brink of bankruptcy and had “substantial doubt” about continuing to operate.
Despite raising an additional $135 million in February to be able to start production in March, the company is facing another financial hurdle that could end things before they even begin (again). On Thursday Faraday Future said that instead of starting deliveries of the FF91 at a special launch event on April 26, the company is implementing a “three-phase delivery plan aimed at continuously implementing the Company’s core philosophy and corporate vision of co-creation and co-sharing.”
What that jargon means is that deliveries now won’t start until the end of Q2 2023. Or that may not happen at all unless they get “substantial additional financing.”
Phase 1 will begin at the end of May for those that have paid in full for an FF91, referred to by the company as “Industry Expert Futurist Product Officers (FPOs).” First however they will receiving training on how to use the vehicle. Those FPOs will then take possession in the Phase 2 of the plan, some time in June. Finally Phase 3 will see additional FF91 deliveries “to all spire users that pay in full for an FF91 vehicle.” By the way, as far as we can tell no one knows how much the FF91 will actually cost, but it is expected to be around $200,000 USD.
However no deliveries will take place unless they get another cash infusion. Even though they raised $135 million in February, the company has already burned through most of that and only has $29.8 million in cash remaining. Faraday says they are “in discussions with additional potential investors,” but finding more investors to put money into what is clearly a sinking ship might be difficult.
Then there’s also the matter of crash tests. Faraday says deliveries are contingent of the completion of required crash tests, but provided no timeline on when the crash testing might take place.
