Huanggang Govt’s Silence About Faraday Future’s China HQ Site Is Worrying, Academic Says
Zhou Fang
DATE:  Jan 18 2023
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Huanggang Govt’s Silence About Faraday Future’s China HQ Site Is Worrying, Academic Says Huanggang Govt’s Silence About Faraday Future’s China HQ Site Is Worrying, Academic Says

(Yicai Global) Jan. 18 -- Faraday Future, a US new energy vehicle startup founded by Chinese businessman Jia Yueting, has said it plans to locate its China headquarters in Huanggang, northern Hubei province. But the Huanggang government made no mention of the project in its 2023 work report and an academic warns that there is reason for caution.

Although the Huanggang government signed a strategic co-operation framework agreement with Faraday Future in the third quarter last year, there was no mention of this investment in its government work report for 2023. And when Yicai Global reporters rang a number of government departments to verify the information, they were told “we know nothing about the matter.”

It is unusual for a municipal government to keep quiet about such a major investment, therefore caution is needed, Ye Qing, an academic committee member of research center Pangoal, told Yicai Global.

Faraday Future’s China HQ is expected to be jointly funded by the Huanggang municipal government, industrial funds and the electric car maker, Faraday Future said on the micro-blogging site Weibo today, citing the agreement penned by the two parties.

The Huanggang government will assist Los Angeles-based Faraday Future with its industrial positioning in the city, allocate resources and province financial and policy support for the carmaker’s projects, it added.

But the silence does not bode well as Huanggang has been trying to accelerate is positioning in the electric car sector in recent years. WM Motor moved there in 2018 and Grove Hydrogen Automotive located its industrial park in the city in April last year.

Faraday Future is struggling to stay afloat with mass production of its first model, the FF91, not expected to start until March and deliveries to begin only in April.

The firm received a delisting warning from the Nasdaq on Jan. 10, its second in the last 18 months, for failing to host a general meeting of shareholders in the past 12 months.

Faraday Future’s stock price (NASDAQ:FFIE) jumped 9.1 percent yesterday to close at USD0.47. The stock has nearly halved in value from the issue price.

Editor: Kim Taylor

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   FaradayFuture,FF,Huanggang,Hubei,NEVs