Despite EV delivery delays, Faraday Future raises $90M to stay afloat
Faraday Future has managed to raise $90 million from existing investors to help it get its much-delayed FF 91 luxury electric SUV to production and delivery. Faraday’s investors will also accelerate an existing commitment of $15 million, the EV company said Tuesday.
Faraday is one of a litany of EV SPACs — EV startups that went public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company — that has struggled to stay afloat. The company keeps burning through cash and putting its hand out for more, while pushing the delivery date of its vehicles. Against that backdrop, Faraday Future has also been investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, and suffered through one internal drama after another.
Despite repeated production delays and an inability to deliver vehicles into customers’ hands, Faraday in May announced that its luxury EVs would have ChatGPT capabilities, an attempt to jump on the AI bandwagon and attract attention. And perhaps it worked, because the company, which as of April only had $30 million to its name, now has somehow managed to convince investors to give it millions more.
Per an SEC filing, Faraday’s latest funds will be led by private equity firm ATW Partners with participation from Senyun International.
The company, which said in May that it hopes to raise $100 million in debt to support initial deliveries, will continue to seek additional funding sources. Faraday Future had planned to begin deliveries of its FF 91 Futurist at the end of May but needed to secure “substantial additional financing” first. It’s not clear if those deliveries have begun, and Faraday didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch to comment.
Shares popped 5%, or a whole penny, after the news, but have since dropped back down. Faraday’s stock closed at $0.24 on Tuesday.
Faraday’s funding comes as peer EV SPAC Lordstown Motors files for bankruptcy protection and sues its investor and manufacturing partner Foxconn for failing to make good on its investment commitments.
