(Yicai Global) Aug. 7 -- Faraday Future (FF), an intelligent electric vehicle firm in which Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp. [SHE:300104] (LeTV) founder Jia Yueting is financially involved, said yesterday that it has rented a former tire factory covering an area of 1 million square feet (92,900 square meters) in Hanford, California, Sina reported today.

Faraday Future expects to start producing its flagship FF 91 model at the facility before the end of next year, a senior manager from the carmaker said.

"The opportunity to enter into the market is very important in our general strategy," said Stefan Krause, Faraday Future's chief financial officer and chief operating officer. "A company second only to Tesla Inc. [NASDAQ:TSLA] will be valuable, and that will be a good market position," he said. "In Bayerische Motoren Werke AG [FWB:BMW], we had always been second only to Mercedes-Benz, until our sales volume exceeded theirs early this year," said Krause, who used to be BMW's CFO.

Last month, Faraday Future said it would not move forward with plans to invest USD1 billion on building a factory in Nevada. Faraday Future attracted attention after its FF 91 appeared at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the firm announced intentions to set up shop in Nevada, but since then company has not advanced production of its products.

Analysts and observers in the automobile industry are skeptical of Jia, Faraday Future's primary backer. The Shanghai High People's Court froze USD183 million on deposit at the bank accounts of Jia Yueting, his wife and the Leshi group of companies on June 29 after he failed to repay loans. Jia stepped down as chairman of LeTV last month and does not hold a position at the company.