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Faraday Future halts construction of US$1 billion car factory due to cash crunch

Faraday Future has hit the pause button on its ambitious US$1 billion electric car factory on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada.


AECOM, the construction firm responsible for around US$500 million of the work on the new plant, has told Jalopnik that "Faraday Future is temporarily adjusting their construction schedule with plans to resume in early 2017".

To date, AECOM has completed grading and foundation prep work at the site.

Faraday Future has since confirmed to the website that construction has stopped and that it is negotiating with AECOM about resuming work next year.

The company says that it is now fully focussed on unveiling its first production-ready vehicle at CES 2017, which takes place at the beginning of January. The company has already teased the spacious-looking crossover EV a number of times.

This latest setback comes after Automobile News obtained a copy of a letter, sent around the end of October, to Faraday Future by AECOM, with the latter demanding payment of a US$21 million ($28 million) instalment that it was owed.

Last week news broke that Faraday Future's backers were facing a severe cash crush. In an email obtained by Bloomberg, Jia Yueting, founder and CEO of LeEco, told his employees: "We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned. We got over-extended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited.”

To ease the company's financial problems, the Jia cut his salary to one yuan (19 cents) and furiously began cutting back on costs.

LeEco began life in 2004 as LeTV, an online video streaming company. The company has since branched out into smartphones, consumer electronics and automobiles. This year LeEco bought out TV maker Vizio for US$2 billion ($2.7 billion), unveiled the LeSee concept car, and confirmed a collaboration with Aston Martin to bring the RapidE EV to market by 2018.

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