Faraday Future seems to be delaying customer deliveries of its first car, again.
According to a recent regulatory filing, the company is pushing deliveries back to the third or fourth quarter of this year.
The FF 91, which has been in development since at least 2016, was expected to launch as early as this month. In February, the company unveiled the first “production-intent” version of the FF 91 and said it remained “on schedule” for production to start in Q3 of this year.
However, Faraday isn’t taking sole responsibility for the continued delays of the FF 91. In the regulator filing, the company says that it is “continuing to engage in confidential discussions and negotiations with certain potential investors regarding a potential financing transaction to raise additional capital to fund production activities through the end of 2022 and beyond.”
Faraday also says it needs “additional cash to commercially launch the FF 91” and is currently seeking to raise additional capital to fund its operations through to December.
The company also blames “recent” supply chain issues have contributed to the delay, before going on to say:
“Any challenges in supplier engagements, delays in ramping capacity or labor at the Company’s Hanford, California manufacturing facility or for sales and service engagements, rising prices of materials, or ongoing global supply chain disruptions may further increase the need for additional capital to launch the FF 91 series.”
And:
“Apart from the FF 91 series, substantial additional capital will be required to fund operations, research, development, and design efforts for future vehicles.”
Presumably, that also includes the FF 81, which the company announced would be manufactured by South Korean company Myoung Shin from 2024.
Production delays, missed dealines, and financial struggles are far from untrodden ground for nascent electric car companies. Many have been born, hyped up as potential game-changers, and folded before any vehicle has turned a wheel.
