Could we actually see tenacious EV startup Faraday Future begin production of its long-promised flagship EV, the FF 91 Futurist? According to Faraday Future’s recent Q4 and full 2022 financial report, production could begin as early as this month. However, much of the startup’s outlook and goals for 2023 are heavily contingent on the receipt of tens of millions in funding previously promised. Here’s the latest.
Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. ($FFIE) is a California-based EV startup founded all the way back in 2014. During its rollercoaster ride of financial and internal ups and downs, its never-say-die tenure in the industry has served as both a tale of caution and one of perseverance.
The EV startup’s flagship EV, called the FF 91 Futurist originally debuted in 2017, but by the end of the year, the company’s CFO and CTO left to form their own company down the street, called Canoo – an EV startup with its own list of woes in search of reaching the often insurmountable take of scaled vehicle production.
Financial ups and downs continued to plague the company, along with other controversies involving former employees, layoffs, and loans. Eventually, company founder YT Jia stepped down as CEO in 2019 after filing for bankruptcy.
In February of 2022, we got a glimpse of the production-intent FF91 Futurist in action, and by August, the startup was expecting deliveries by year’s end. However, an investor dispute quickly sent Faraday Future’s production targets once again off the rails… at least briefly. By September, the dispute was settled, and FF was touting $100 million in additional funding to approach start of production.
During Q4 of 2022, Faraday Future announced the acquisition of $135 million of additional capital was in the works, resulting in yet another delay of FF 91 Futurist production to March of 2023. According to this its recently released Q4 and 2022 financial results, Faraday Future has acquired a huge chunk of those promised funds. However, it will require millions more delivered for it to hit its slippery target of FF 91 production in California.
Faraday Future can hit SOP if funds promised in Q4 arrive
According to Faraday Future’s Q4 and 2022 results, its FF ieFactory California remains on track to begin FF 91 Futurist production on March 30, “subject to the timely receipt of the previously announced and committed $135.0 million.”
The startup states that those financial commitments are also vital to it hitting its delivery target to customers in late April – that and its suppliers hitting their supply chain requirements for the builds. Faraday Future states $111.6 million of the funds committed have been received since the end of Q4 2022, but another $38.4-$58.4 in incremental funds are still on the way.
Operating expenses were $451 million for 2022 compared to $354.1 million a year prior, but Q4 was more encouraging at $83.9 million spent compared to $121.4 million in 2021. The startup cites increases in engineering, design, and testing as the reason for the added expenses in 2022.
Still, net losses were up to $552.1 compared to $516.5 in 2021 and also up for Q4 2022 ($153.9 million) compared to just over $84 million the year before. Faraday Future states its cash and restricted cash was down to a bleak $18.5 million at the end of Q4 2022, but was back up to $37.5 million (including $2.1 in restricted cash) as of March 2, 2023.
Newly appointed global CEO Xuefeng “XF” Chen spoke to company’s current situation in (hopefully) bringing the FF 91 Futurist to production:
We have come a long way towards making the FF 91 Futurist available to our customers, and I am proud of the dedication and commitment shown by our team to achieve all major milestones. Securing the necessary funding commitments to begin production and delivery of this vehicle is a major game changer for us. Going forward, we expect to utilize all available resources in order to deliver our car to our enthusiastic customers.
Like it has several times before, Faraday Future could once again continue forward by the mere skin of its teeth and perhaps truly hit a start of production, but we have no reason to hold our breath at this point and nor should you.
All eyes will be on the March 30 SOP target to see if Faraday Future can get its hands on the funding it has been promised. More to come.
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