It Looks Like Faraday Future Will Soon Be A Thing Of The Past

It said it would be a Tesla rival by next year. We laughed. We're gutted for the people who invested so much time and effort into the project, but it looks like it might all be over for Faraday Future

Remember Faraday Future? The company that claimed it would be a Tesla rival as quickly as next year? The company we confidently predicted would get nowhere near its targets? Guess what. Faraday is looking increasingly like it has no future.

Not only have almost a dozen former employees spoken to The Verge to attack the company over its business practices and those of its chief financial backer, Jia Yueting, but now the tycoon has been placed on a Chinese government blacklist of credit defaulters. It seems he hasn’t been paying his debts, and we suspect the Chinese authorities are not people you really want to tick off.

Yueting reportedly has unpaid debts totalling about £53.6 million. Faraday Future, after technological gaffes at the seriously rapid FF91’s motor show appearances, seems to be collateral damage. Clearly, at the moment it has no money and can’t hope to finish the project. Yueting won’t be able to borrow more, either, after being placed on the blacklist.

This isn’t the first time Yueting has crossed the line financially. As recently as July 2017, a Chinese court froze over £139 million of his assets over unpaid interest on loans taken out for his tech conglomerate, LeEco.

As impressive as the FF91’s time at Pikes Peak was, we think we can pretty much forget about it ever making production until the company formally collapses and is bought out by someone who knows what they’re doing. We can imagine a few European firms who’d kill to get their hands on EV technology like that…