Faraday Future FF91 Release Not Clear As Executives Leave And Company Struggles With Finances, Report Says

Faraday Future, once seen as a competitor to Tesla, is struggling as it finds itself with money problems and top executives ditching the company, sources told Business Insider.

Sources say Faraday is “in shambles” as more than half-dozen senior executives left the company since last spring, including Global CEO Ding Lei.

Top Executives Leaving Faraday

Lei stepped down from his post just before Faraday revealed its first fully electric production vehicle at CES 2017. Lei is a top executive at Chinese tech giant LeEco, Faraday Future’s partner. He was seen as the company’s second most influential spokesperson after founder Jia Yueting.

FF has operated without naming an official CEO for almost two years, with sources telling Business Insider there is a messy corporate structure between Faraday's US and Chinese operations.

Faraday insiders say there are at least two "CEOs of record," people who had the ability to sign financial documents for the company. The first was Chaoying Deng, an executive from a LeEco subsidiary who held the role until October 2015, and David Wisnieski, who was officially Faraday Future's director of finance but left the company last year.

Low On Cash

It was previously reported that FF has been having financial problems, as it tried to raise money despite partnering with LeEco. Faraday had to suspend work on its Nevada production facility in November, just seven months after it broke ground at the site.

But problems at Faraday seem to be bigger with sources telling Business Insider about millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

Faraday’s major problem is cash shortage. A source revealed, "If CES doesn’t bring in fresh investors, it’s over between February and May."

In regards to the Nevada plant, sources said work at the site "stopped almost as soon as it started." Faraday and its contractor, AECOM, said the work stoppage was only a hiccup and the project would resume this year, but sources say if the company can’t get the money, it may be forced to build a smaller-scale, low-volume plant instead.

Unpaid Bills

Money owed to suppliers amounts to about $300 million, executive-level sources say. Two companies sued Faraday over unpaid bills, BuzzFeed reported last month.

Meanwhile, Jia continued to push teams to keep spending money at 100 percent, but then left them in the dark about sources of funds.

"There was no visibility about when the money would arrive — we were told to continue making commitments to suppliers," a source at the company revealed, adding that FF got about 10 percent of the money it needed each month, "only $10 to $15 million."

Time is Faraday’s biggest enemy.

"If they can’t figure out a way to get the money out of China in the next 60 days, the suppliers would essentially force them into bankruptcy," a source said.

CES 2017 and FF91

Faraday Future revealed its FF91 vehicle in an embarrassing demonstration, as the car failed to park itself when Jia pushed a button. The vehicle isn’t even close to being ready, sources say.

"All that stuff at CES was just a bunch of bulls---," a source told Business Insider. Another said the car "isn't even close to being complete," despite the Faraday's claims that it would go into production in 2018.

After the event, Faraday Future announced it received more than 64,000 reservations for the vehicle. People were allowed to reserve the car with or without a $5,000 fee. Only 60 paid the reservation, sources told Business Insider.