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Faraday Future Reportedly Loses Acting CEO Days Before CES Reveal

With just days until Faraday Future unveils the production version of its electric vehicle at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, the acting CEO of the company has reportedly stepped down.
Faraday Future FFZERO1 Concept 1 photo
Photo: Faraday Future
Unnamed sources from within the company have informed their contacts in the media that Mr. Ding Lei, one of the top execs of LeEco, has stopped being the acting CEO of Faraday Future. LeEco is a Chinese tech giant that has a tightly knit relationship with Faraday Future, and their representatives have described the collaboration as a “strategic partnership.”

Regardless of the things that happen in boardrooms regarding Faraday Future and LeEco, both are funded by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, which is a more important link that what is stated in the footer of a press release.

According to the sources quoted by The Verge, Mr. Ding Lei was LeEco executive that was chosen to oversee the operations of Faraday Future.

The electric vehicle start-up company that is building a factory in Nevada never mentioned the name of the CEO in one of its press releases, but the said sources claim that Mr. Ding Lei handled this responsibility.

Previous reports claimed that the Chinese billionaire behind Faraday Future had encountered a shortage of liquidities a few months ago, but company officials dismissed those reports.

The most concerning part of this story is that Faraday Future had promised to reveal a production car at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it is unclear whether that will happen as planned.

While the acting CEO might have overseen that the project was completed when the development of the said vehicle is concerned, it is still a mystery why he did not continue to control Faraday Future.

Reports also claimed that Mr. Ding Lei had left LeEco, but that bit was addressed by the press department of the Chinese company, which explained that Faraday Future handles communication separately, and that Ding Lei is still an executive within LeEco.

In other words, they confirmed that he did not leave the "mother company," but the link with Faraday Future has not been recognized or denied.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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