Dive Brief:
- With company executives and state officials on hand, electric carmaker Faraday Future is set to break ground today on its new 3-million-square-foot, 900-acre manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas, NV, according to Business Insider.
- Faraday Future announced that it has made almost all of the necessary land purchases at the new factory's site and will start construction on an accelerated schedule.
- Faraday, which revealed its FFZERO1 vehicle in January, is building its factory close to competitor Tesla’s gigafactory in Reno, NV.
Dive Insight:
The car company’s plan to build in Nevada almost ran out of gas after state officials expressed doubts about billionaire Faraday backer Jia Yueting’s financial stability. Yueting is the head of Chinese tech company Leshi, which recently suspended trading of its stock during acquisition of a film company, according to Business Insider. This was reportedly a normal occurrence in China, but it spooked Nevada officials, who have committed to providing Faraday with $215.9 million in tax breaks in return for Faraday bringing the $1 billion investment to Nevada.
However, the deal was back on after Faraday agreed to put up $75 million in additional security. Faraday spokesperson Stacy Morris told Business Insider that Faraday "has agreed to the assurances they want ... We want to bring our investment there, so I think it's a win-win situation."
Faraday officials said the factory will create 4,500 new jobs and that its first cars will be on the road by 2017, the same deadline for the launch of Tesla’s Model 3.
Nevada has seen a surge in business recently, as it 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 the Tesla gigafactory. Since construction on the facility began, the number of local business licenses has spiked. Switch, developer of SUPERNAP data centers, is also constructing a $1 billion data center near Tesla.
