On January 28th, we learned from officials that Faraday Future (“FF“) founded by Jia Yueting and the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) : Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. (“PSAC”) announced that the two parties have reached a final agreement on the business combination, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021. After the merger is completed, FF will be listed on NASDAQ under the stock code of “FFIE” (Faraday Future Intelligent Ecosystem).
To briefly introduce, SPAC is also known as “blank check companies”, is a backdoor listing method in the US stock market. Unlike buying shells and listing, SPACs are built by investors themselves, and they have no actual business themselves. They can inject business and increase value by acquiring non-listed companies within a certain period of time.
It is reported that common stock PIPE includes more than 30 long-term institutional shareholders from the United States, Europe and China. PIPE cornerstone investors include large financial institutions from the United States and Europe, China’s top three private auto OEMs, and China’s first-tier cities. This combined transaction provides approximately US$1 billion in funding for FF.
In the recent period, there has been constant news about FF financing. For example, Zhuhai State-owned Assets will participate in the investment of FF 2 billion yuan. Among them, the two leading state-owned enterprises in Zhuhai-Gree Group and Huafa Group jointly participated in this investment. At the same time, Geely has also been reported to invest 40 million US dollars in FF and cooperate in many fields such as vehicle foundry and autonomous driving. Based on FF’s latest response, it is not difficult to judge that the “top three private auto OEMs in China” mentioned by it may refer to Geely, and the “city” is Zhuhai.
FF Global CEO Dr. Bi Fukang said, “We are very pleased to have reached a cooperation with PSAC. This is an important milestone for our company… I am very happy that this business combination will enable us to launch FF 91, which can redefine luxury smart electric vehicle models, and help FF users and shareholders to participate in building an innovative future travel ecosystem.”
At the manufacturing level, FF said that it will adopt a global manufacturing layout and a hybrid manufacturing strategy with light assets, including its manufacturing plant in Hanford, California, and OEM manufacturing with a Korean partner cooperation. FF is seeking OEM production in China through a joint venture, and is expected to sell more than 400,000 vehicles in the next five years, and its first flagship model, the FF 91, has received more than 14,000 orders.
In terms of product planning, in addition to the first model FF 91, the research and development work of FF’s second model FF 81 is also in progress. In the next 5 years, FF’s passenger car plan will include the FF 91 series, FF 81 series and FF 71 series. Among them, FF 81 is expected to be launched in mass production in 2023, and FF 71 is expected to be launched in mass production at the end of 2024.
