Nevada Insuring Itself Against Faraday Future's Murky Present
Nevada, home to Tesla’s “Gigafactory,” is taking a different tack with its other soon-to-maybe-be electric vehicle producer, Faraday Future. To make sure its $215 million package of tax incentives and abatements actually creates a factory that will employ Nevadans, the state has levied a number of conditions on Faraday, which includes putting up millions of dollars to develop the future 18,000-acre Apex Industrial Park site the company will call home.
According to Automotive News, Nevada requires that Faraday Future put up $3 million to cover the initial costs of engineering and surveying the site, and an extra $10 million to extend services — such as water, sewer and rail — to Apex. The state expects Faraday to deliver those funds in early May.
Other conditions include hiring 4,500 employees, of which half must be Nevadans. Faraday is also required to put up $75 million in collateral before Nevada issues bond that will fund development of the site, and that money will only be returned once Faraday has built more than half of its factory and begun selling cars.
Faraday will occupy 900 acres of the 18,000 acre site total and act as the park’s anchor tenant.
To date, Faraday has shown only a silhouette of its production vehicle and a non-operational concept vehicle.
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Good for Nevada for demanding some real investment before turning on the money, but can they legally discriminate against nonresidents? If they are using a dimes worth of federal aid I would expect this to raise constitutional issues. Anyway, they will be residents after they get hired unless the plant gets built right on the border.
"...$75 million in collateral..." Some auditors should scrutinize the true valuation of what Faraday Future calls collateral.
Faraday is Vaporware. Take it directly to the bank. It's a top-to-bottom promotional scam, and this facility/complex will never see the light of day. "To date, Faraday has shown only a silhouette of its production vehicle and a non-operational concept vehicle." The fact that Nevada regulators and legislators have even spent as much time on a company that has never built anything other than a silhouette of its production vehicle & a non-operational concept vehicle is grounds for firings and recalls of those legislators for wasting Nevadans' taxpayer money even seriously engaging with Vaporware Faraday in terms of time, planning and other resources.
Who are these shady characters? Is this a play to directly ride the coat tails of TESLA? If or when this pie wrangling business fails, could it take down good local businesses with it?