Caixin News Agency, December 24th (Reporter Xu Hao) - Amidst the embarrassment of FF91 only completing 15 deliveries, the promotion of the second brand FX is particularly urgent for Jia Yueting and his Faraday Future (FF).
On December 23rd, Faraday Future (FF) announced that it has completed a new round of $30 million in cash financing, following its $30 million funding in September, to accelerate the advancement of its FX strategy.
For this round of investors, FF told Caixin reporters that "it has not yet been announced to the public". However, the 8-K form submitted by FF to the SEC on December 23 shows that "one of the investors is V W Investment Holding Limited, an independent investment fund whose investors include FF Global Partners". In FF's previous public information, it was mentioned that V W is an affiliated company of the company's long-term shareholder.
According to the plan, in this round of $30 million financing, the first $7.5 million has been prepaid in the fourth quarter of this year, and the remaining $22.5 million is a new financing commitment (referred to as "new financing"). The forms of new financing include unsecured convertible notes ("Convertible Notes") and warrants to subscribe for the company's newly issued ordinary shares ("Warrants"). Among them, the conversion price of convertible notes is $1.16 per share, and the exercise price of warrants is $1.392 per share, which can be adjusted according to the agreement. As of the close of the US stock market on December 23rd, FFIE's stock price was $1.11.
This round of financing is the company's second recent $30 million financing, "said FF founder Jia Yueting. The funds will be used to ensure that the FX prototype car can complete FF's technology empowerment and other R&D testing work, integrate the supply chain, expand the FX production line at FF ieFactory California factory, and accelerate the production of FX's first car by the end of 2025.
In September of this year, FF announced that it had received $30 million in financing commitments from investors in the Middle East, the United States, and Asia, with Master Investment Group, a UAE based investment company, participating in the financing. On October 31st, FF received the full net financing amount. According to the third quarter financial report, as of September 30th, the company had assets of $449 million, liabilities of $292.3 million, and a book value of $156.7 million.
In the same month, FF officially confirmed that its second brand would be named "Faraday X" (FX), applying the concept of "double performance, half price" to the Volkswagen market, aiming to become Toyota in the AI EV market. Jia Yueting revealed at that time that FF had signed cooperation agreements or MOUs with four first tier domestic automakers to become the first automaker in the United States to fully promote extended range AIEVs. The second brand FX will first launch two models, the FX5 with a price range of $20000 to $30000 and the FX6 with a price range of $30000 to $50000, both of which will use pure electric and extended range technology. The first model is expected to be launched by the end of 2025.
As more funds are received, the pace of FX's advancement seems to have accelerated. According to the plan, FF will announce the progress of FX business and showcase the first batch of FX prototype cars during CES in the United States from January 5th to 7th. Previously, FF disclosed that the first FX prototype car will arrive in Los Angeles, USA at the end of this month, and product development and testing will begin at FF's manufacturing plant in Hanford, California. On November 20th, FF announced that the first batch of FX prototype vehicles had arrived at FF China headquarters and were subsequently transferred to FF headquarters in Los Angeles.
In terms of production, FX brand will adopt a light asset operation mode, and two products will be produced after the transformation of the production line at FF's Hanford manufacturing plant in California, and cost reduction will be achieved through cooperation with OEM host factories. Regarding whether there is sufficient funding to support the production and delivery of the next two cars, FF management stated that they will continue to announce FF's milestone nodes and fulfill their commitments.
To promote the landing of the FX brand, FF announced personnel changes this month. Gu Lei, a senior expert in vehicle development and safety technology, will serve as the director of FX Global EV Research Institute and also serve as the head of FX 6 series. Gu Lei has been engaged in research on vehicle structural safety and passenger protection systems at Ford Motor Company, and has served domestic car companies such as Chery Automobile and BAIC Group.
On October 23rd, Jia Yueting publicly revealed for the first time in an interview with domestic media that he still has about 2 billion US dollars in debt in China and plans to "repay it and return home within two years". Now, with a $60 million financing and the advancement of the FX project, it seems to be one step closer to the road of "returning home".