Faraday Future Sets up Headquarters in China, Promises New Models and 5 Million Cars By 2028

Evergrande Health Industry Group Ltd, which owns a 45 percent stake in U.S.-based Faraday Future, said Tuesday that the electric vehicle startup has officially moved its headquarters to China. The group claims Faraday now plans on building five R&D and production facilities across the country over the next decade.

The intended goal is to have the startup reach an annual production capacity of 5 million vehicles within 10 years and launch multiple “premium to entry-level segments for the global auto market, to build an internet-based intelligent mobility ecosystem,” Evergrande said.

It sounds a little premature for a company that managed to evade certain death by the skin of its teeth — and only just snagged a manufacturing facility — a few months ago.

While the startup has supposedly begun assembly on the FF91 in the United States, we’ve yet to see a single finished example of the crossover — just a body in white. But now it’s promising new models, like the smaller FF81, and a production volume that could be understated as ludicrously ambitious.

The new headquarters, called Evergrande FF Intelligent Automotive (China) Co., Ltd, will be responsible for technology research and development, as well as all of the production, operation and management of FF in China. This creates a bit of confusion, though. The investment holding company previously changed the name of Ruichi Intelligent Vehicle Co., a Chinese subsidiary, to “Evergrande Faraday Future.” However, the American-based FF is also supposed to expand into China as a separate entity and has now officially set up an HQ there.

While the corporate structuring of Faraday has always been incredibly difficult to follow, it became worse after Evergrande Group purchased its 45 percent stake last June as part of the holding company’s diversification strategy into the tech sector. Faraday’s ties to LeEco’s LeSEE are beyond muddled, despite both companies sharing the same chairman (Jia Yueting) and co-developing technologies. But now there is also a subsidiary based in China that’s also using the Faraday name.

The automaker’s new Chinese headquarters opened on the same day as the announcement (August 14th), which seems odd. But production at its facility in Hanford, California is supposed to humming along. We’ll see if that turned out to be true in a few months and, hopefully, be able to parse out how Evergrande organized everything.

[Image: Faraday Future]