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Businesses China The Almighty Buck Transportation

Founder of 'Tesla Killer' Faraday Future Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (theverge.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the end-of-road dept.
Faraday Future's founder and former CEO Jia Yueting has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware court in a bid to satisfy his myriad debts in China. From a report: The Chinese tycoon claims he still owes around $3.6 billion to more than 100 creditors, thanks, in large part, to the collapse of LeEco, the tech conglomerate he founded there. The bankruptcy filing marks a major turn in the story of Jia's prolific history of taking on debt, which led to him being named to a national debtor blacklist in China and sparked his move to the United States in 2017. Before proceeding in court with Chapter 11, though, Jia is offering to satisfy those debts through a trust backed by the value of his ownership stake in Faraday Future. This trust will only pay out to creditors if and when the startup goes public. (This resembles but is separate from the plan Faraday Future laid out earlier this year for suppliers who are owed money, which was put together by Birch Lake Associates, a Chicago-based restructuring firm.)
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Founder of 'Tesla Killer' Faraday Future Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy More

Founder of 'Tesla Killer' Faraday Future Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

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  • "I make Tesla, but in China".

    This kind of effort always seemed dubious to me to result in a real production car, more of a one-off effort to produce a really cool prototype.

    I have to wonder how many other fringe electric car makers will face the same fate.

    • a $200,000 battery ride? the VW Beetle doesn't stand a chance.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Who wants the beetle, people will claim it and only the most fashion conscious unconscious will actually buy it because of course the VW Combi will likely be the big demand vehicle for them. A private room, where ever you go, I already have the interior layout in mind, need the pop roof and the toilet and shower appear where you least expect it, as does the stove and sink and pantry cupboard and fridge.

        I think the VW Combi will be far more popular than people think, making that private room on the go work a

    • "I make Tesla, but in China".

      That's exactly what Telsa is doing: REUTERS: Tesla's China production to start, eyes on mass production timing: sources [reuters.com]

      SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) China factory aims to start production this month but it is unclear when it will meet year-end production targets due to uncertainties around orders, labor and suppliers, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

      The U.S. electric vehicle maker aims to produce at least 1,000 Model 3s a week from the new factory by the end of this year, the centerpiece of its ambitions to boost sales in the world’s biggest auto market and avoid higher import tariffs imposed on U.S. cars.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        GF3 in Shanghai is only for the Greater China market. It lets them stop sending supply from Fremont to China, and instead direct it to new markets like South Korea, eastern Europe, parts of the Middle East, etc.

    • I have to wonder how many other fringe electric car makers will face the same fate.

      To be fair, it affects ICE vehicles, too. Elio Motors was promising a December 2019 production date three years ago, and I haven't seen a new estimate since.

      Vehicles are one of those industries where it seems really simple until you actually try to do something. It's just a motor and wheels... and seats and steering and electronics and suspension and monitoring and safety features and marketing, all sitting on top of a huge pile of regulation. It's easy to make a prototype that doesn't have to be reliable,

    • Re:Bad start (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @06:08PM (#59307424) Homepage

      I have to wonder how many other fringe electric car makers will face the same fate.

      Well, Dyson just called it quits the other day. And NIO is swirling the drain.

      I think Tesla's success gave a bunch of people the wrong idea, that it's easy to break into the auto industry with electric cars. Which isn't even remotely the case. Tesla's success was highly unusual and unlikely. And only made possible by perfect storm of great talent, a massive untapped niche (people were paying $80k for used RAV4EVs and buying things like Zap Xebras), and a lot of luck.

      Making a few handbuilt EVs is comparably simple. People do this in their garages all the time. A small team with angel funding can make some really awesome and impressive prototypes. Developing a mass production system, however, eats automotive startups alive.

      • Re:Bad start (Score:4, Insightful)

        by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @06:46PM (#59307526)
        Tesla (and all its would-be competitors) also had extremely bad luck in one aspect: fracking. Until about 2010, it was widely held that gas prices would only go up, up, up, as remaining reserves became more difficult to extract. It seemed obvious. And if that had held true - imagine if gas were $6 / gallon today - what would be the demand for Tesla, or any other electric car?
        • The stone age did not end because we ran out stones. The Age of Oil will end with half the known reserves left in the ground.

          Gas prices will drop first and then start going up again. BEVs cost one fourth of gas cars. It is costing me 3 cents a mile for the model 3. 4 miles / kWh, 12 cents /kWh. A gas car giving 30 MPG, needs gasoline to be at $1.20 to be competitive.

          Right now BEVs are more expensive, battery production capacity is limited and there is no price parity off the dealer lot. But that day i

          • This is demonstrably true.

            The stone age did not end because we ran out stones.

            I can't argue with this either.

            The Age of Oil will end with half the known reserves left in the ground.

            My dispute is on what the replacement for petroleum would most likely be. We don't burn petroleum for the purpose of trashing the environment, we burn petroleum because it is a ready made energy source (or nearly so) that can be pumped out of the ground, and because it is exceedingly efficient at storing this energy in a form that is dense in volume and mass, is liquid at convenient temperatures and pressures, is reasonably safe, and there is lots of

            • Range is the last refuge, the last line of defense for ICEV.

              The biggest weapon in BEV side is the cost per mile, 3 to 4 cents a mile. To match this, to a 20 MPG car owner, gas has to be between 60 cents to 80 cents/gallon. For a 40 mpg car, it can be as high as $1.20 to $1.60.

              Then whats the hold up? Cost of BEV is much higher than the cost of ICEV, Right now only cars above 50K$ can be made at competitive prices to ICEV. It was 100K in 2012. 80 K in 2016. See the progression? The battery prices are fal

          • None of what you've said in any way addresses what he said.

          • The Age of Oil will end with half the known reserves left in the ground.

            The age of oil won't end. We'll just stop setting this valuable base material on fire. /Typed on a device made from from refined petrochemical products while wearing a shirt made of refined petrochemical products.

            • We still use bronze. We are not calling this bronze age. Likewise iron. Likewise coal. Likewise oil.

              • We still use bronze. We are not calling this bronze age. Likewise iron. Likewise coal. Likewise oil.

                Let's expand on that. You cite the Bronze age, then I counter with 2 points:
                1) Formally the bronze age is part of the three age system which only recognises the stone age, bronze age, and iron age.
                2) In the expanded view of technology the bronze age is part of a larger system of 8: stone age, bronze age, iron age, machine age, atomic age, digital revolution, space age and information age which puts you an an awkward situation: either an age ends where a new one begins (since the most recent one is the info

          • What kill oil isn't even price, it'll be convenience. Price leads a bunch of people to sway. But what really nails the lid shut is when gas stations start getting less and less profitable.

            Seen a 1 hr photo place nearby lately? It's extremely inconvenient to process film. It's extremely easy to process a digital image.

            Similarly it's extremely difficult to maintain fueling infrastructure. It's extremely easy to install a 120v outlet in your home or work parking space or on the street even. Tesla is inv

      • Rei! Good, you are still holding the fort. I went away for a few months.
      • I actually saw a Faraday Future prototype (or at least a car with their logo on it!) on Figueroa St. near their office in Carson, CA.

      • Well, Dyson just called it quits the other day.

        Please don't confuse Dyson with a company which actually intended to produce a car.

    • Probably similar to the number of gas-burners back in the early 1900s. Or computer makers in the 1980s. etc. Common part of the initial cycle of a new product type.
  • ...will fall into it

    just marketing BS to get money from investors knowing that they will fail.

    • The famous economist John Maynard Keynes once said:

      "If I owe the bank 100 pounds . . . I have a problem."

      "If I owe the bank 100,000 pounds . . . the bank has a problem."

      • I've never heard that before, but it is very true. So, can somebody loan me a billion dollars for a few days?

      • "If I owe the bank 100,000 pounds . . . the bank has a problem."

        The bank never has a problem, it comes out of our accounts (and taxes), not theirs.

  • Sounds like they failed in their attempts to steal enough IP to get the show off the ground. Note to Chinese founders: Steal the IP before you raise the money. Don't be silly and think you can do it all on your own. You're not American for goodness sake.
  • So Jia will be the next Prime Minister of China? That apparently is how it works in the USA. Fuck people over, become president.
  • No body is talking about the "iPhone Killer" or "Amazon Killer". But there seem to be some unseemly interest in seeing Tesla die. Why?

    • No body is talking about the "iPhone Killer"

      Nobody? Seems to me that everyone is trying to beat out the iPhone for the top of the smart phone market.

      or "Amazon Killer".

      Probably because Amazon is doing just fine in killing itself.

      But there seem to be some unseemly interest in seeing Tesla die. Why?

      A "whatever killer" doesn't have to remove the whatever from the market, only remove it from the top spot.

      Because Tesla came into the market at the right time, with the right product, and was able to weather some early difficulty well, it's been able to establish itself in a way that it left little room for a competitor to get a market. More

    • No body is talking about the "iPhone Killer"

      That's what literally countless Android companies have been trying to achieve.
      (Or even some other OS - Palm's WebOS wasn't that many decades ago)

      Currently, only Samsung seems to more or less have managed to carve themselves a similar brand recognition...

      or "Amazon Killer".

      That is like the actual goal of Rakuten, Aliexpress/Alibaba, etc.

      Whenever a company has success with a business concept, a bunch of other companies and startup take notice and try to jump in the market to get their share of the pie, and the press automatical

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