Faraday Future shelves electric car factory

Faraday Future's contractor, AECOM, stopped work on the factory last October

Faraday Future, which is developing an electric car it hopes will rival Tesla's, has suspended its plans for a $1bn (£775m) factory in Nevada.

The US start-up held a ceremony when construction began in April last year, but work stopped in October and has now been postponed indefinitely.

Entrepreneur Jia Yueting has backed Faraday, but some of his assets were frozen in China earlier this month.

The firm's financial woes have been acknowledged in the past.

Its first production vehicle, the FF91 - which was unveiled at the CES tech show in January - is currently scheduled for launch next year.

The site of the proposed factory was visited by the BBC in the same month but was apparently deserted.

In a statement, Faraday Future said was in the process of identifying a manufacturing facility that could speed up the path to production.

"Accordingly, we have decided to put a hold on our factory at the Apex site in North Las Vegas," it said.

"As the land owner, we remain committed to the build-out of the Apex site for long-term vehicle manufacturing and firmly believe North Las Vegas is an ideal place for us to be."

Mr Yueting had $182m in assets tied by a court in China and his firm, LeEco, has faced its own funding problems in recent months.