Faraday falls behind on plant construction bills

LOS ANGELES -- A construction firm working on Faraday Future’s $1 billion Nevada factory has warned the electric-car startup that it could face a work stoppage over millions of dollars in unpaid bills, raising questions about Faraday’s financial condition.

In an Oct. 10 letter, Robert Gay, vice president and project executive at AECOM -- which is overseeing $500 million of work on the roughly $1 billion, 3 million-square-foot plant -- cites an unpaid $21 million deposit, due in September, to an escrow account to cover material costs and subcontractor work. A copy of the letter was obtained by Automotive News.

The letter gives Faraday 10 days to “fully fund” the escrow account with the overdue September payment, or risk a suspension of work until “the funding issue is resolved.”

The letter also listed projected payments due of about $25.3 million for October and $11.8 million for November.

“AECOM management views these deposits as a critical metric to project financial security and maintaining confidence and credibility with our project subcontractors and suppliers,” the letter reads.

In response to queries about the letter, Faraday and AECOM emailed a joint statement to Automotive News reaffirming their commitment to working together.

“The business relationship between Faraday Future and AECOM is strong and we remain committed to building our factory of the future in North Las Vegas,” the statement read. A Faraday spokesman said that no work stoppage would take place and that the automaker was working diligently with AECOM to resolve the overdue payment.

Faraday, which is backed primarily by Chinese tech billionaire Jia Yueting, began developing the site in July after a high-profile groundbreaking in April with Nevada state officials. Construction work has been largely confined to large-scale grading of the 900-acre site. Work on the foundation and building isn’t expected to start for several months.

Faraday hopes to use the factory to build a range of fully electric vehicles for sale in the U.S. and China. Nevada lawmakers lured Faraday to the barren industrial site in North Las Vegas -- about 30 miles northeast of downtown Las Vegas -- with a $215 million incentive package approved in December 2015.

CES introduction

The company introduced itself to the public at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, grabbing headlines with a wild 1,000-hp all-wheel-drive concept hypercar called the FFZERO1.

Its production aspirations are more modest, starting with a full-size luxury crossover EV set to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.