Dive Brief:
- Electric car manufacturer Faraday Future announced this week that it was putting a hold on plans to build a $1 billion North Las Vegas factory, according to the Associated Press.
- The company said it is looking for an existing manufacturing plant that can get production on its FF91 model underway sooner than building a new facility would allow.
- While the company has scrapped its plans for a new factory for now, Faraday said it intends to restart construction on the North Las Vegas plant at some point in the future.
Dive Insight:
In February, the company announced another shakeup in its plans when it said it would build a smaller facility before following up with construction on the $1 billion plant. The company had stopped construction on the North Las Vegas factory in November amid claims of late payments to contractors and its inability to maintain a sufficient balance in a state-required escrow account.
Faraday's latest news likely comes as no surprise to state officials who questioned the company's financial stability and its aggressive auto production schedule when negotiations to build the factory in Nevada first began. The state and city of North Las Vegas had hoped for increased economic development and employment generated by the project, prompting Nevada officials to promise Faraday around $215 million in tax breaks — of $320 million total incentives — to build its factory there.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, according to the Las Vegas Sun, said the shutdown would not place the now-defunct project's financial burden on taxpayers. The state had withheld financial incentives from Faraday, pending its full $1 billion investment, dividing those accumulated funds between North Las Vegas and the state of Nevada.
While both the city and state may have lost out on a factory whose operations could have been "precedent-setting," Faraday's $50 million investment in infrastructure improvements around the former development site joined a slew of other corporate developments underway in the area.
Construction has already begun on two warehouses totaling 800,000 square feet just south of the former Faraday Future site. Those warehouses will go to sporting goods manufacturer Fanatics and household product vendor The Honest Co, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.