Faraday Future’s factory construction paused; shipping timelines at risk

Electric vehicle maker Faraday Future may not be able to make its first cars in time to hit its 2017 shipping deadlines, according to a new report by the Financial Times on Thursday. It’s hard to ship a car when your factory itself isn’t finished — FF’s Nevada-based manufacturing facility broke ground in April, but construction has since been paused because, according to state treasurer Dan Schwartz speaking to the FT, it hasn’t paid bills owed by the company to its construction partner.

The delay is temporary, according to comments made by general contractor Aecom, which is working with Faraday on the project, and construction will resume some time in early 2017. That’s going to push out the completion date considerably, and will make it quite difficult for FF to make its previously stated production timeline. FT also spoke to an anonymous former employee who said deliveries to customers within the 2017 time frame were “not possible.”

Part of the issue may be that primary financial backer LeEco has publicly acknowledged difficulties related to available cash, and the large investment its made in building cars, both itself and via partners like Faraday Future, was cited as one cause. LeEco recently raised an additional $600 million, but given Faraday’s financial reliance on LeEco, the Chinese company’s cash problems combined with this news of the factory delay don’t bode well.

Faraday Future has promised to show off its first production vehicle (pictured in a spy shot above) at CES in January, after revealing a Batmobile-like FFZERO1 concept last year. We’ll likely learn more about its anticipated schedule for delivering said vehicle at that time, too, and there will clearly be a lot riding on what they present at the show.