Dive Brief:
- Electric car startup Faraday Future has announced it will build its $1 billion factory in Apex, NV, north of Las Vegas, in the same industrial park where Hyperloop transportation testing will soon begin and not too far from competitor Tesla's gigafactory, Tech Insider reported. The company, with a reputation for being secretive, said it will reveal more details about its plans next month.
- Faraday's 3-million-square-foot, 900-acre facility will create 4,500 new jobs, the company said in a statement. Faraday also said it plans to have cars on the road by 2017, the same time Tesla plans the launch of its Model 3.
- The company has played it close to the vest regarding ownership, but its California corporate filings indicate an association with a company owned by Chinese media billionaire, Jia Yueting, who, according to Tech Insider, has a passion for electric vehicles.
Dive Insight:
Faraday's decision came after its announcement last month that it was also considering sites in California, Georgia and Louisiana. The company has released very little information about its operations thus far, but it currently has 400 employees and even has managed to snag some staff from competitor Tesla Motors.
Faraday representatives have said the company wants to differentiate itself from competitors by marketing the vehicle as a "tool for the connected class," rather than just a car.
The company's timeline, though, has many wondering whether it can realistically go from concept to sales by 2017. John Gartner, a director at market intelligence firm Navigant Research, told the AP, "Developing an electric vehicle platform from scratch takes many years and doing it in 18 to 24 months would be a precedent-setting event, if it could be done."
The clear winner here, however, is northern Nevada. The region keeps racking up new tech companies. State officials have said major companies are seeking the area out as a place to do business, a major change some would attribute to Elon Musk and his Tesla gigafactory.
Since construction on the facility began, the number of local business licenses has increased as well. Switch, developer of SUPERNAP data centers, is also constructing a $1 billion data center near Tesla.
