Startup Faraday Future hopped onto the electric-vehicle scene with a straightforward mission -- beat Tesla Motors at its own game. With the backing of a Chinese billionaire and a growing Web presence, the company is set to unveil its first concept at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. But the concept launch could be disrupted by the departure of a vital employee.
Porter Harris, Faraday Future's chief battery designer, left the company after 15 months of employment. Bloomberg reports that Harris lists his current employer as Lotus Research and Development LLC. Prior to Faraday Future, Harris worked for Elon Musk's SpaceX.
This could have serious ramifications for Faraday. Its first concept is set to debut at CES, and it's already working to build a manufacturing facility in Nevada. The company did not immediately return a request for comment.
A Chinese-backed electric carmaker plans to build a $1 billion manufacturing plant outside Las Vegas.
A letter to Nevada officials that The Associated Press obtained Wednesday says the company will build in North Las Vegas. The letter is signed by billionaire Chinese investor Jia Yueting (ZHAW' YOO'-weh-ting), a major financial backer of California-based Faraday Future.
Nevada officials scheduled a news conference Thursday to formally announce the deal.
Lawmakers still would need to authorize tax incentives as part of the deal. Last year, the Legislature did so to secure a massive battery factory by another upstart electric carmaker, Tesla Motors.
Faraday Future, a mysterious electric-car maker looking to take on Tesla, said Thursday it plans to invest $1 billion in a new US factory that will produce its first cars in 2017.
The Gardena, California-based startup, which launched 18 months ago, said it is considering several locations for the factory, including sites in California, Georgia, Nevada and Louisiana. A decision about the factory's location will be announced "in the coming weeks," Faraday Future said.
"Selecting the right location for the future FF manufacturing facility is critical to our overall goals," Nick Sampson, senior vice president of Faraday Future, said in a statement. "Producing our forward-looking and fully-connected electric vehicles not only requires the latest technology, but the right community partner."
The startup hasn't divulged where its funding is coming from, but Bloomberg noted that Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting is backing the company, though it doesn't state whether some or all of the money comes from the online video magnate.
Faraday Future's plans to begin manufacturing its first vehicle in a little more than half the time it took for Tesla to get its first car out the door. While Faraday plans to make cars just three years after its launch, its Palo Alto, California-based competitor launched in 2003 but didn't produce its first car, the Lotus-based Roadster, until 2008. It took an additional four years from there to build its own car from the ground up.
"We are quite far along in the design and engineering process," said Stacy Morris, a Faraday Future spokeswoman. "We just released data for manufacturing prototypes, as well as initial long-lead tooling data for production."
While technology has advanced since Tesla was born, Faraday's three-year timeline for production still faces challenges, experts warn.
