Faraday Future has stopped construction of a planned US$1bn electric vehicle factory in North Las Vegas, the company reportedly said, another sign of trouble for Chinese tech entrepreneur Jia Yueting, who hoped to displace Elon Musk's Tesla Motors.
Faraday Future, based in Gardena, California, reportedly missed several payment deadlines with contractor AECOM, according to a Nevada state official. A Faraday spokesperson declined to confirm to Reuters whether it missed payments but said Faraday "is working with" AECOM during an "adjustment period" at the plant and that it planned to restart work in 2017.
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Reuters noted Faraday is part of a network of young EV companies in China and the United States backed by Jia who said last week his company LeEco, which has invested in high-tech products from electric cars to smartphones, faced a shortage of cash and was suffering from expanding too fast and in too many directions.
Earlier, LeEco's parent, Leshi Holdings, said it had secured commitments in China for $600m to support LeEco.
LeEco said in August it would invest nearly $2bn to build an electric car plant in eastern China.
Reuters said Faraday earlier negotiated a deal to build a $1bn plant in Nevada with the state providing more than $200m in incentives.
The Faraday spokesman told Reuters the company is "refocusing its resources" on preparing its first production vehicle for introduction in early January at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Other media reports said the state incentives would not kick in until a certain level of expenditure on the plant had been reached.
