Faraday Future: New money from game company The9

D as Chinese electric car start-up Faraday Future has been in financial difficulties for a long time. The series production of the SUV called FF91 could not be started until today, the preparations did not go beyond the media-effective presentation of the first body shell.

The planned factory in the US state Nevada was not realized either. At the end of 2017, Faraday Future only narrowly slipped past bankruptcy, which could only be averted through investments by the Chinese real estate group Evergrande.

Fresh money from Shanghai

Now a new financier is coming for Faraday Future on the stage. The Shanghai computer game company The9 is investing 600 million US dollars in the automaker over the next three years. The money will be used to set up a joint venture between the two companies. The aim is to develop and sell a new, V9, electric car in China.

The V9 is to be based on the technology and design of the Faraday Future FF91 and in a number of up to 300,000 copies per year be built. The pre-series should roll off the assembly line as early as 2020, and later the V9 will be followed by other models.

While The9 is contributing the money for the start of the joint venture, Faraday Future is said to have a property owned by the company in China for the car factory and cede the rights for the production and marketing of the V9 in China to the new company.

If Faraday Future manages to start the planned assembly of his own car in the USA, it should V9 largely correspond. While the joint venture with The9 serves the Chinese market under its own brand, the USA and other countries would be served with the electric car under the Faraday Future label.

Faraday Future plans second model

'With the new joint venture, you have the opportunity to implement our two-brand strategy in two home markets (China and the USA, editor's note),' says YT Jia, CEO of Faraday Future. 'This is just the beginning of a series of strategic steps by Faraday Future to support the completion of the FF91 electric car in 2019 and to advance the development of our mass-market premium model FF81 in China and the US.'

The9 is a licensee of successful computer game brands for the Chinese market. A lot of money was earned with “World of Warcraft”, among other things, but also with FIFA rights.