Chinese billionaire bets on Vegas for Tesla challenge

He said Nevada also was appealing because of the ample land needed to accommodate the plant, and was close enough to Southern California ports. The state offered $1.3 billion in tax abatements & other perks, representing one of the biggest incentive packages ever given by a state, to lure the Palo Alto e-car maker.

Sandoval plans to convene Nevada lawmakers before Christmas for a special session to authorize the agreement.

Faraday’s facility will encompass 3 million square feet and 900 acres in the North Las Vegas APEX Industrial Park.

The startup will unveil a concept vehicle at CES, an annual technology conference in Las Vegas, in January. It hopes to bring a vehicle to market as early as 2017. In November, the company said it planned to invest in a new factory, but at the time it hadn’t determined the final location.

The billionaire, Jia Yueting, is known mostly for Leshi Internet & Technology Co., an entertainment and online video company. He types himself after Apple’s late Steve Jobs.

Here are highlights of the agreement that Nevada officials hammered out with the company over the course of a year.

The proposed incentives are more modest than those approved past year to attract Tesla Motors’ battery factory to Nevada. Faraday Future’s $1 billion factory wouldn’t qualify.

The company would receive a complete sales tax rebate for 15 years, compared with Tesla’s 20-year term. Like Tesla, Faraday’s vehicle will be all-electric, and debut at the high end.

How long existing groundwater can sustain Faraday and other follow-on enterprises depends on a host of factors, including how thirsty those industries are and how effectively water can be reused on site or returned to the aquifer.

The deal includes $ one hundred twenty million in public infrastructure enhancements, and $ 70 million in investments from personal landowners.

“We hope to bring our $1 billion investment to North Las Vegas and our open our first manufacturing facility there, creating 4,500 jobs”, he said, according to Bloomberg.

Half of the plant’s staff have to be Nevadans, in accordance to the settlement.

In luring Faraday to Nevada, state officials committed to providing workforce development programs to train 4,000 workers.