Faraday Future

Faraday Future has hit another rough patch (and no, they still haven't built any production cars): The luxury EV startup that previewed a 1,050-hp EV last year is cutting employee salaries by 20 percent, in addition to laying off other employees. News of layoffs and salary cuts comes days after main company backer Jia Yueting, who heads a telecom giant in China, entered into arbitration with another financial backer, China's Evergrande Health, which had pledged a $2 billion investment over three years in the struggling EV maker in exchange for a 45 percent stake in the company. Faraday Future claims, among other things, that Evergrande has been withholding funds from the company. The EV startup burned through $800 million by the middle of 2018 and was seeking an installment of $700 million from Evergrande as operating cash for the remainder of the year, which was expected to see the start of production for the FF 91. Evergrande allegedly refused to provide the $700 million, which triggered the arbitration that is being conducted in Hong Kong. "After its initial $800m investment, Evergrande agreed in July 2018 to make further payments earlier than originally agreed, including $500m of the $1.2 billion, in 2018," the automaker said in a statement earlier this month. "Contrary to what Evergrande has told the press and its shareholders, neither FF’s CEO YT Jia nor anyone else 'manipulated' the board of Evergrande in reaching these agreements. In agreeing to bring a portion of its payments forward to 2018, Evergrande had a full understanding of why the funds were needed, and when they were needed, in order to achieve production and delivery of FF 91 in 2019.......

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