A Faraday Future FF 91 electric car arrives on stage for an exhibition of speed during an unveiling event at CES in Las Vegas, Nevada January 3, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
(Reuters) -Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc said on Monday that the electric-vehicle startup will raise up to $600 million in funding as it looks to deliver its FF 91 luxury car later this year.
The company will get an initial $52 million of funds as part of a new financing facility. Its cash balance was $52.2 million as of Aug. 9.
EV startups that promised to disrupt the auto industry by using a technology-heavy approach to their vehicle designs are now scrambling to secure fresh lines of cash and cut costs due to rising commodity prices.
Chief Executive Carsten Breitfeld said Faraday Future's manufacturing facility in California was nearing completion and was testing the FF 91 electric vehicle.
The electric-vehicle maker said it was in talks with investors in the United States and globally for a "significant additional near-term funding" as it looks to start deliveries in the third or fourth quarter.
Separately, Faraday Future said its head of global supply chain, Mathias Hofmann, will temporarily oversee manufacturing operations at its Hanford, California factory, replacing Vice President of Manufacturing Matt Tall, who will leave the company.
The EV firm had in July signaled the need for more cash to launch FF 91 model in a regulatory filing just a month after CEO Breitfeld told Reuters that it would be able to launch the car without additional funding.
Faraday Future is one of the many EV startups that went public through blank-check mergers, a market that has slowed this year due regulatory scrutiny and the poor share performance of companies listed via that route.
The company also said some suppliers had more recently requested accelerated payments and other terms and conditions due in part to its financial condition.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Praveen Paramasivam; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Arun Koyyur)
