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Nov. 12 (NBD) -- U.S. electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Faraday Future (FF) has filed a "petition to confirm arbitration award" against Season Smart Limited, a proxy for Evergrande, in California’s Central District Court, The Verge reported.

The award from a recent Hong Kong arbitration decision made on October 25 includes the legal costs of over HK$5.8 million (739,268 U.S. dollars) for the previous arbitration.

As a part of the entire emergency relief decision, Faraday Future was allowed to seek up to 500 million U.S. dollars in financing.

A person close to FF said the EV maker has appointed St. Louis-based Stifel Financial Corp. to help FF secure the new funding in a bid to cast off its financial dilemma.

The dispute between FF and Evergrande has started for more than one month.

FF first commenced arbitration against Evergrande in early October after the Chinese firm refused to release an advance payment to the U.S. automaker. Faraday claimed Evergrande was violating the terms of the agreement, while Evergrande said Faraday hadn't met pre-determined conditions for the payment.

Later on November 7, Season Smart filed arbitration counterclaims to the fullest extent against Yueting Jia, CEO of FF and the FF's parent company Smart King, demanding Yueting Jia and the company to perform contractual obligations.

Under serious fund shortage, FF is struggling to survive by all means.

FF is reported to have initiated a fundraising campaign on the U.S. website Go Fund Me on November 3, in an attempt to raise a total of 50,000 U.S. dollars within two weeks. As of Sunday, the program has received over 21,000 U.S. dollars.

The proceeds are used to support FF's production team staff in financial stress.

To reduce costs, FF now has laid off some employees and cut salaries by 20 percent, leaving about 500 core team member to produce cars.

An executive from FF's U.S. unit said the U.S. auto manufacturer plans a new round of financing as well as an initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, three to four years ahead of the company's previously planned IPO, Chinese media 36Kr reported.

The company currently is valued at over 10 billion U.S. dollars, far more than 4.5 billion U.S. dollars for FF when Evergrande invested the company, a senior executive noted.

FF's troubles arouse concerns over the volume production of the FF91, first EV model of FF.

The new car is aimed to be mass produced this year and delivered in 2019. 

The company said it already has more than 60,000 unpaid orders and over 600 paid orders from China and the United States.

The FF91 is initially priced at 2 million yuan (287,869 U.S. dollars) in Chinese market and 200,000 U.S. dollars in the U.S., more expensive than Tesla models.

However, an industry insider held that even if FF successfully completes financing, the high price of the FF91 could cause FF's failure to win enough orders and achieve mass production.

To make things worse, the first and only pre-production FF91 caught fire hours after the company exhibited the car at a "Futurist Day" event held in late September, according to The Verge.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn