autoevolution
 

LeEco, the Chinese Startup Bent on Making EVs, Starts Work on $3 Billion Factory

The situation regarding Chinese company LeEco and U.S.-Chinese joint-venture Faraday Future has been worthy of a soap opera script, and things aren't getting that much clearer as we speak.
LeEco LeSEE concept 1 photo
Photo: LeEco
Everybody knows that Chinese billionaire, Jia Yueting, is the man behind both of these names, but his role at FF was never clarified. In fact, there was no official CEO, but rather a group of executives who seemed to act as the decision makers.

Recently, it has emerged that there was indeed a Faraday Future CEO, only he was working for LeEco. His name is Ding Lei, and he has now left the U.S.-based company to focus his attention on the Chinese conglomerate. See, we told you this was complicated.

To make matters worse, the two companies are both committed to huge infrastructure investments that will eventually enable them to build electric vehicles. Faraday Future started working on its $1 billion factory in Nevada earlier this year, but over two months ago, it transpired that it was behind on its contractors bills, so contruction stopped.

Shortly after, LeEco admitted to having a bit of a cash crisis, and announced it would cut its expenditures. With the FF plant still on hold, Electrek says LeEco has now started working on its $3 billion facility in China. This is where the company plans to build its LeSee electric sedan, but also several other more affordable models that are yet to be introduced.

This move would suggest a focus switch from LeEco on its own products, but since the technology behind LeSee was actually developped by Faraday Future, the American branch (we guess we can call it that) of LeEco is still important to the mother company.

Faraday Future has a big event of its own planned shortly. Next Tuesday, it will unveil the electric crossover it's been teasing for the past few weeks, hoping it will succeed in securing enough capital investment to resurrect the construction on its facility in Nevada.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Vlad Mitrache
Vlad Mitrache profile photo

"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories