Electric vehicle startup considering Louisiana for $1 billion factory

Gardena, California-based Faraday said Thursday it would announce the site of the facility in the coming weeks. It’s named after the English scientist who invented it in 1836. But for now, its staff boasts a who’s-who of electric vehicle engineers and designers. Further details on the company’s leaders have also been revealed.

Sampson, who supervised vehicle and chassis engineering, left Tesla in January 2012; Elon Musk said at the time that he asked for Sampson’s resignation because there was not a “good fit for him within the company”. There’s no word yet on when the company will show its first vehicle, but its most obvious rival fellow California EV maker Tesla plans on showing its Model 3 in March of next year.

Louisiana is one of four states that could be the site of a $1 billion, electric vehicle manufacturing plant, planned by Faraday Future, a California startup. It is not known if the aid from the online video magnate is complete or partial.

Faraday has ambitious plans for its first auto.

In terms of design, the company has a teaser rendering on its website of an SUV which looks very BMW X6-esque.

“We will launch in 2017 with fully-electric vehicles that will offer smart and seamless connectivity to the outside world”, said FF. “Beyond traditional electric vehicles, we are also developing other aspects of the automotive and technology industries, including unique ownership models, in-vehicle content and autonomous driving”. The company now employs a few 400 workers. Now Faraday has funding for a manufacturing plant, the mystery has garnered serious interest.

When the Wall Street Journal pushed Sampson on where the significant amount of money for his virtually unknown company had come from, reporters were simply told “we are keeping our partners confidential”.

The competitive landscape from traditional automakers continues to grow while a new startup company, Faraday Future, will invest $1 billion in a new factory to compete against Tesla.

It also already boasts a huge staff.