Faraday Future Raises $52M of Planned $600M Funding

Faraday Future hopes to raise up to $600 million to fund the delivery of its luxury electric sedans, promising investors that customers will finally receive their cars as soon as the third or fourth quarter of 2022.

Faraday Future announced Monday that it raised $52 million in convertible notes from New York-based investors ATW Partners (which also backs Pasadena-based wearable biosensor tech company Rockley Photonics). Financing the new facility could inject as much as $600 million into Faraday’s coffers, the company said in a statement Monday – adding that it is in “active discussions” with investors in the U.S. and overseas about securing additional capital.

Faraday Future’s CEO Carsten Brietfeld said Monday that the company’s manufacturing facility in Hanford, Calif .—which was recently rebranded as the FF ieFactory California — is nearly ready to begin operations. Brietfeld said the Hanford facility is fully equipped and has already produced a dozen vehicles intended for mass production.

This could signal progress for Faraday, which unveiled a finished FF91 car in March after hyping it for nearly eight years – but it still faces challenges beyond the usual hurdles that come with getting a line of EVs into mass production.

The company recently restructured its leadership and demoted founder Yueting 'YT' Jia in April. Some of Faraday’s investors and critics recently argued in a class action lawsuit that 78% of Faraday’s 14,000 reservation deposits were from an “undisclosed company” and not actual prospective drivers.

“Testing and validation of the FF 91 is well underway, and I am very pleased with the results we are seeing. The FF 91 will be the world’s first ultra-luxury EV and will reset customer expectations for what the future of intelligent mobility can be,” Brietfeld stated Monday.

Faraday also announced the promotion of Mathias Hofmann to head of manufacturing operations. Hoffmann was previously the company’s head of global supply chain management, and he’ll keep that job while temporarily stepping in to lead manufacturing after former lead Matt Tall left the company.

“I am very pleased to have this important new committed capital and framework in place for substantial additional funding. We are working diligently to complete this capital raise process in order to raise sufficient new funds to launch the FF 91,” Brietfeld added in a statement.