1 best of : LeEco, Faraday Future May be Low on Cash

LeEco chairman Jia Yueting has apparently admitted that his company may have been a tad too ambitious with its expansion plans, including the launch of its LeSee and Faraday Future electric cars.

Bloomberg recently obtained a letter Jia wrote to company employees and shareholders discussing LeEco’s financial situation.

“No company has had such an experience, a simultaneous time in ice and fire,” Jia stated in the letter. “We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned. We got over-extended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited.”

In addition to making company-wide cutbacks, Jia said he would drastically slash his salary to 15 cents.

LeEco is the parent company for a number of Jia’s business ventures including his popular LeTV streaming service, which he launched in 2004. Since then, LeEco has branched out into smartphones, smart TVs, and electric vehicles.

Earlier this year LeEco unveiled its LeSee EV concept, which the company said was packed with “groundbreaking, fully autonomous capabilities.” Jia is also involved with Faraday Future, the EV startup that broke ground on a new factory in North Las Vegas earlier this year. That project has recently come under scrutiny following reports that the company has missed payments to Nevada and a contractor involved with building the new plant.

It’s unclear how the newly announced cutbacks will affect LeSee’s and Faraday’s timeline. Faraday is apparently showing off a production model at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this January and previously announced it will be ready to launch its first car by the end of 2017.

Source: Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times