We are all aware of the rise of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, but Tesla has a competitor in the form of electric car start-up Faraday Future.
Faraday Future is controlled by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, who once boasted he would leapfrog Tesla in launching an electric supercar. However Yeuting faces a new hurdle as the company struggles to finalise funding of $US500 million.
Part of the company’s problem with fundraising is an inability to get Chinese regulators to approve transfers of money out of the country.
Faraday made global waves two years ago when it unveiled a 1000-horsepower prototype that looked like the Batmobile . Yueting planned to erect a $US1 billion production plant in the Nevada desert and create 4500 manufacturing jobs but work on the plant has stopped.
Meanwhile, Tesla has problems of its own as it continues to burn through cash and will need to finalise new funding in the near future.
Faraday Future’s early financier, Jia Yueting, and reportedly the company’s largest shareholder has been placed on China’s official “Blacklist” for credit defaulters. The 44-year old Chinese billionaire and technology entrepreneur who once had grand visions to become China’s Steve Jobs, and take on the likes of Tesla, Apple, and Netflix through various high-flying ventures, is finding himself in even deep waters, according to the New York Times.
China’s court in Beijing has added Jia’s name to its official database for debt defaulters, after the court ruled that he owed roughly $73 million (480 million yuan) to Ping An Securities, an investment arm of China’s second-largest insurer. Jia along with two executives of LeEco, a company that Jia also controls, are arguably the most famous names on the government list.
