Faraday Future, the troubled EV startup-turned-publicly-traded firm has shuffled its govt ranks as soon as once more.
The board fired its CEO Carsten Breitfeld, in keeping with a regulatory submitting posted Monday after the markets closed. Brietfeld, who was the previous co-founder of failed EV startup Byton, took the management function at Faraday Future in September 2019.
The board stated Monday it appointed Xuefeng Chen, a former and longtime Chery Jaguar Land Rover Vehicle govt who most just lately led the Faraday Future’s China-division, as its new CEO. As Faraday’s new international CEO, Chen will obtain a base annual wage of $900,000, a performance-based bonus of as much as $600,000, and a money signing and retention bonus of $500,000. The retention bonus should be returned if Chen resigns or is terminated with out trigger within the subsequent 36 months. Chen can even obtain restricted shares and performance-based restricted inventory items.
The CEO upheaval is the newest in a string of inside drama and monetary issues which have plagued the corporate for years. Even its public debut at CES 2016 was controversial.
The messiness on the firm has solely ramped up because it , went public by way of a merger with Property Options Acquisition Corp. in July 2021. Investigations, a restructuring and a going concern warning are only a few of the dramatic flip of occasions up to now 18 months.
Brietfeld’s dismissal comes only a week because the firm warned it may not be capable to proceed working over the subsequent yr and that it was unsure when its first FF 91 luxurious EVs can be delivered.
The corporate has repeatedly delayed the FF 91 car, which as of November 17, solely had obtained 369 non-binding preorders. Whereas Faraday Future did seem to snag a $350 million lifeline in current weeks, it will not be sufficient to maintain its operations or ship on its long-promised car.
