Media sites were abuzz Monday, as a statement from Faraday Future (FF) shut down hopes of an economic boost to Southern Nevada.
Amidst financial troubles, which have been evident for the past few months, FF is putting their plans for a custom-built facility in North Las Vegas on hold and seeking an already constructed 1 million square foot facility somewhere in Nevada or California.
The announcement came just three months after FF bailed on another facility planned for Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif. That site was to be 157 acres, and was put on hold to focus on the over 900 acre site at APEX. Aside from installing sewer systems and moving dirt, not much else has happened with the APEX site, bringing skepticism on the future of FF.
According to CNN.com, the main investor for FF, Jia Yueting, has had his assets frozen due to loans from various financial institutions. The company looks to expand its investor base and to follow through on the building of both sites.
Faraday Future statement
“We at Faraday Future are significantly shifting our business strategy to position the company as the leader in usership personal mobility — a vehicle use model that reimagines the way users access mobility. As a result of this shift in direction, we are in the process of identifying a manufacturing facility that presents a faster path to start-of-production and aligns with future strategic options.
Accordingly, we have decided to put a hold on our factory at the Apex site in North Las Vegas. As the landowner, we remain committed to the buildout of the Apex site for long-term vehicle manufacturing and firmly believe North Las Vegas is an ideal place for us to be.
We would like to thank our partners in Nevada for their continued support throughout this process: Governor Sandoval and his office of Economic Development, Clark County and Mayor John Lee and the North Las Vegas officials.
More details on Faraday Future’s new strategy will be shared in the coming weeks.”
Although APEX is about 53 miles away from Mesquite, local government and economic specialists have long touted that FF would have boosted the economy, bringing many of the FF workers to Mesquite to live and raise their families, since it is cheaper than Las Vegas and the drive is relatively simple. For now, the 13,000 proposed jobs will be on hold until the financial stability of FF can be improved.
Yada, Yada, Yada.. It is amazing that Nevada continues to fall for pie in the sky flim flan artists over and over. Will we ever learn the difference between legitimate business and snake oil salesmen? How do elected officials continue to promote this kind of hype?
Our representatives voted to tax Nevadan’s on a phantom car that they could not see or touch and the word of a questionable Chinese businessman who had never built a car and was having financial difficulties from the beginning. Apex development for any enterprise will not happen without getting water to it and they had planned on getting it from Lake Mead.
The whole deal was lacking in common sense and the people of Nevada will be paying some bills as the government in North Las Vegas wants to continue to develop the area.
Most likely this is one of the dumbest votes to ever come out of the assembly and we can thank Dan Schwartz for investigating it and holding up the sales of bonds until Faraday actually came up with some cash.