California’s Vallejo City Council has scheduled a pivotal meeting for later today (May 31, 2016) to decide whether to approve an application by electric vehicle start up, Faraday Future, to construct a manufacturing facility in the region.
UPDATE 01/06/2016: The Vallejo City Council has unanimously approved a six-month exclusive negotiating contract with Faraday Future (FF LLC), a special-purpose subsidiary of Faraday Future. Read the full story here.
The Vallejo City Council has called a special meeting to consider and vote on an exclusive negotiating agreement that represents the first formal step in bringing a Faraday Future manufacturing site to the city’s Mare Island.
The manufacturing plant would be the first new automobile manufacturing facility to be built from the ground up in California in decades. The new operation would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and a long-sought major employer to the former US Naval base at Mare Island.
Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis said Faraday Future ticked all the boxes in regards to an employer that was willing to invest in and enhance the California city.
“When we first started marketing this property, our first objective was good-paying jobs with green technology and an employer willing and able to make the necessary investment,” he said.
“Faraday Future and its plans to make Vallejo its second manufacturing site and bring green technology to Mare Island checks all the boxes.”
A Californian dream for Faraday Future
Faraday Future is a private Californian corporation based in Los Angeles which formed in 2014.
The company employs more than 760 people in the US and 200 more worldwide and has had a busy 2016 so far. It introduced its new concept vehicle, the FFZERO1, and kicked off development of its first US manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas.
After evaluating 187 sites throughout the US, Faraday Future chose Vallejo, Mare Island and the North Bay as a potential site for its manufacturing facility. This was due mainly to its proximity to Silicon Valley, which features an employee base which can be trained to build cars and a strong market for electric vehicles, new technology and transportation innovation.
The manufacturing plant would establish the City of Vallejo and Mare Island as a hub of clean-tech, consumer-orientated and climate-protective ingenuity.
The Vallejo City Council is scheduled to consider and vote on an Exclusive Right to Negotiate (ERN) Agreement. The Agreement includes a timeline and terms for negotiations between the City and Faraday Future toward the sale and project approval of the 157 acre site.
The ERN sets forth a six-month negotiation period with two potential 90-day extensions.
Today’s vote is a pivotal one for Vallejo City Council, as the facility is expected to create hundreds of jobs and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into a city which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in 2008 as it was tens of millions of dollars in debt.
If a final agreement is reached, Vallejo City is expected to hand over the Mare Island site to Faraday Future “as is”, due to the amount of work needed to rehabibilate the site. The electric car manufacturer is set to supply a $200,000 fee to the city along with paying for the city’s legal and consultant fees associated with the project, which are expected to be at least $372,000.
Faraday Future plan to design and develop a light industrial facility at the 157 acre site for the manufacturing of electric vehicles. It is also planning ot include an ‘experience center’ where customers can learn about the company’s products and technologies, observe the manufacturing process and take delivery of finished cars as well as road test vehicles.
Faraday Future FFZERO1
Faraday Future unveiled its first concept vehicle during January’s CES 2016 technology exhibition.
The ‘FFZERO1’ is a so-called hypercar which makes use of the massive power generated by electric motors to provide incredibly fast acceleration being able to accelerate form 0 to 60mph (96.5km) in less than 3 seconds.
The first units of the FFZERO1 is not expected to be available until 2017 at the earliest.
Faraday Future’s North Las Vegas manufacturing facility (see image below) – a 3-million square foot plant estimated to cost $1bn – has commenced construction and is projected to start producing vehicles in a couple of years.
