It was supposed to be a rival to Elon Musk's Tesla and even had a giant factory almost next door. However, Chinese firm Faraday Future has said it will move production of its planned luxury electric SUV to a new site, virtually scrapping a stalled $1 billion Las Vegas factory amid deepening financial woes of key investor Chinese entrepreneur Jia Yueting. Faraday is part of a network of young electric vehicle (EV) firms in China and the United States backed by Jia, who has said his company LeEco - that grew from a Netflix-like video website to a business empire spanning consumer electronics to cars within 13 years - is facing a severe shortage of cash after expanding too fast and in too many directions. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval looks at a model for a Faraday Future factory in North Las Vegas, Nev. Electric car maker Faraday Future said Monday, July 10, 2017 that it is deserting its plan to construct a $1 billion manufacturing plant in southern Nevada eight months after suspending the project and sinking at least $120 million into it. Faraday Future halted work on the project outside Las Vegas last November, at the time calling the stoppage a'temporary adjustment' that would not affect plans to begin production in 2018.

Self-driving car startup Faraday Future will back away from plans to build a $1 billion assembly factory in Las Vegas amid continuing financial problems for the company. In a statement via the Nevada Independent, Faraday Future chief financial officer Stefan Krause said the startup will focus on other quicker ways to reach its production goals. "We have decided to put a hold on our factory at the Apex site in North Las Vegas," Krause said. "We remain committed to the Apex site in Las Vegas for long-term vehicle manufacturing." For Faraday, the shift in plans for one of its flagship initiatives is a significant step back for the company.

China's LeEco has unveiled an electric autonomous vehicle that it says will surpass Tesla's Model S in'all aspects of performance'. Dubbed LeSEE, the sleek pearly white sedan has memory foam seats, Knight Rider-style voice activation, an automatic driving mode and a steering wheel that folds toward the dash when the car is set to autopilot. This futuristic concept car was engineered to be a'smart', 'connected' and'automated self-driving car' and the firm hopes it will set the stage for a fleet of autonomous taxis. Dubbed LeSEE, the sleek pearly white sedan has memory foam seats, automatic driving mode and a steering wheel that folds toward the dash when the car is set to autopilot. This futuristic concept car was engineered to be a'smart', 'connected' and'automated self-driving car' and the firm hopes it will set the stage for a fleet of autonomous taxis The LeSEE white sedan has memory foam seats, automatic driving mode and a steering wheel that folds toward the dash when the car is set to autopilot.

Faraday Future's FF 91 electric car is unveiled at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 3. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg) Faraday Future said it received 64,124 customer reservations shortly after unveiling its first car, the FF 91, this week at CES in Las Vegas. The initial strong response is welcome news as the Los Angeles-based automotive startup is in need of funds to get the battery-powered crossover into production. The spike in reservations came within 36 hours of Faraday Future's elaborate debut of the car on Tuesday, the company said in a statement. While "priority" reservations for the 1,050-horsepower FF 91 require a refundable $5,000 deposit, the company declined to specify how many of its prospective buyers were paying that amount. If all goes well, cars start shipping sometime in 2018.

Faraday Future took the wraps off a long-awaited production car this week at CES in Las Vegas just as circumstances grow ever more challenging for the Los Angeles-based automotive startup backed by Chinese entrepreneur Jia Yueting. The company showed off the FF 91 crossover-style car late Tuesday that it says combines supercar performance with ultra-luxury ride and comfort, has advanced web-enabled entertainment features for passengers and even parks itself in crowded lots using autonomous driving technology. It tested the latter feature before a live audience on Monday, as well as clocking its acceleration on stage against high-end luxury vehicles from Bentley, Ferrari and Tesla. "The FF 91 will usher in a new age of connected vehicles," Nick Sampson, the company's senior vice president of engineering and R&D and a former Tesla engineer, said at the unveiling that was webcast, noting that interested buyers can reserve one at the company's website with a $5,000 deposit. Jia, who is also founder and CEO of LeEco, the so-called Netflix of China, joined Sampson and other Faraday executives at the Las Vegas event to mark the FF 91's unveiling.

Start-up Faraday Future has unveiled a self-driving electric car that it says can accelerate from zero to 60mph (97km/h) in 2.39 seconds. Faraday says the FF91 accelerates faster than Tesla's Model S or any other electric car in production. It was shown off at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. But Faraday Future has faced financial difficulties and one analyst said it had to challenge "scepticism" following last year's CES presentation. The FF91 was introduced via a live demo, in which it drove itself around a car park and backed into an empty space.

Conventional bicycles are undergoing a radical technological makeover that could change the way people ride and protect their bikes. LeEco isn't reinventing the wheel with its new Smart Road and Smart Mountain bikes, but infusing them with dazzling technology derived from smartphones and self-driving cars. The bicycles have navigation, fitness and communication features, and even technology to track a stolen bike. These new features are more than just bells and whistles -- they could be a blueprint of how future bikes could look. Transportation is the next big technology frontier, and LeEco's bikes are cool and smart.

Billionaire CEO Yueting Jia told employees in a letter last week that the company's rapid growth was leading to stagnation and management problems at LeEco, and announced that he would invest $10 million into the company and cut his salary to 15 cents in order to keep LeEco steady as it expands into the United States and develops a self-driving car. But North American operations lead Brian Hui told the audience at TechCrunch China today that things aren't as dire as the letter made them seem. "If you read the letter, it's not about whether it's sustainable or not sustainable," Hui said of LeEco's growth. It's how you can spend your money wisely… You go through a very aggressive user base growth period before you enter a financially sustainable period. I think this is pretty normal, applying to any kind of startup." Although the letter led to rumors that LeEco would abandon the development of a self-driving vehicle, Hui said that work on the car was a "highest priority" and would ...

After snapping up Irvine television maker Vizio in July for 2 billion in cash, Chinese tech firm LeEco made its official U.S. debut Wednesday, hosting a San Francisco news conference to spell out its ambitions to sell gadgets as varied as phones and cars. During the two-hour presentation, the company ran through nearly a dozen products it plans to launch, including a range of 4K smart TVs, the Le Pro3 and Le S3 smartphones, a virtual reality headset, a smart bicycle that can travel up to 30 mph, a video streaming service and two smart cars: the semi-autonomous LeSee and the fully autonomous LeSee Pro concept car. But the LeSee was noticeably absent from the news conference. LeEco founder Jia Yueting told the audience it got into a "serious accident" while in transit from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley. The LeSee Pro, present at the event, sat stationary on display.

Chinese technology company LeEco on has made an inauspicious entry into the race to develop self-driving electric cars after its prototype car could not make it down the runway at a San Francisco launch event. China's Le Holdings Co Ltd, also known as LeEco, planned to unveil its self-driving car prototype as part of a splashy U.S. launch for an array of technology products and services, including phones, televisions and entertainment production. However, the planned climax to its two-hour press conference had to be scrapped at the last minute after one of its prototype electric cars was involved in a crash during its drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. A second was flown over from London, where it is appearing in a forthcoming Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay, but the flight was delayed, missing the beginning of the show. The firm had planned to unveil its self-driving car prototype as part of a splashy U.S. launch for an array of technology products and services in San Francisco.