EV startup Faraday Future gets $9 million from the government as a relief check

After a very tumultuous start, the electric vehicle manufacturer Faraday Future is finally looking to get back on track with the help of a sizeable government loan. The company faced a slew of problems pertaining largely to the company’s founder and main backer, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting. Faraday Future opened up with sizeable losses due to the company’s structure, which included a $30,000 monthly salary for Jia and a $284,000 monthly lease for its Los Angeles, California headquarters.

The government loan will help the company deal with pre-pandemic issues

The financial issues became prominent as the firm had to sell the aforementioned headquarters in order to obtain cash for productions, and they were exacerbated as Jia filed for bankruptcy, a process that was funded by Faraday Future. However, the company’s small size enabled it to apply for a loan from the Small Business Association’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a measure that was launched to mitigate the detrimental effects of the pandemic on small businesses.

Faraday Future was among the largest beneficiaries of the program, as their $9,167,800 loan came just shy of the program’s $10 million limit. Furthermore, so long as the company adheres to the program’s requirements and proves that the funds are being spent to keep their operations going, it won’t have to return the loan to the state. Many similar EV manufacturers were deemed too big to apply for the loan, with the electric trucking startup Workhorse being one exception, as it received a $1,411,000 loan as part of the program.