Faraday Future just got the green light on what could be its second factory
The Vallejo city council voted Tuesday night to enter an exclusive agreement with Faraday Future - also known as FF for short.
The agreement sets in motion the negotiations between FF and the city for the car company to acquire 157 acres of land on Mare Island, a former Naval shipyard.
FF wants to build a light industrial plant for manufacturing electric vehicles and a number of other facilities, including an experience center where customers can test drive and pick up their cars, the company said.
Kathleen Diohep, who manages Vallejo's economic development office, called the future site "a destination and a factory." The city came out of bankruptcy just five years ago and, as recently as 2014, had trouble meeting its pension obligations.
City officials say they hope a potential deal with FF will help revive its fortunes. "It's going to bring people to Vallejo," Diohep added. Among some of the terms of the agreement, FF will pay the city a $200,000 nonrefundable fee, and pay some of the city's negotiation-related costs.
The Southern California-based FF says it likes the Bay Area site because of its close proximity to Silicon Valley. The proposed location is about 60 miles south of Tesla's factory in Fremont.
FF has been moving aggressively since its public debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past January. It's moving forward on the construction of its first manufacturing facility in North Las Vegas.
Nick Sampson, the company's SVP of research, development and engineering said in April that FF also plans to have "full prototypes that represent [its] production cars" ready before the end of the year.