Evelozcity becomes Canoo; Faraday and The9 create joint venture; Xprize Foundation prioritizes forest conservation.
Faraday Creates Chinese Joint Venture
Gardena-based Faraday & Future Inc. created a new joint venture with Chinese game developer The9 Ltd. to market and sell its cars in China, the Business Journal reports. The joint venture will invest $600 million in Faraday as long as Faraday hits certain production schedule milestones within a year timeframe. A board of directors consisting of three appointed by The9 and two appointed by Faraday Future will be established to oversee the joint venture, and no Chief Executive or C-Suite has been appointed for the joint venture yet.
Xprize Foundation Encourages Forest Conservation
Culver City-headquartered educational nonprofit Xprize Foundation Inc. holds technology development competitions to tackle humanitarian problems and has turned its focus to the forests. The foundation has created an outline of “potential breakthroughs” and key technologies that could make forest ecosystems healthier. The initiative is not yet part of Xprize’s competition structure, but Socaltech reports the nonprofit may focus on forest conservation in future competitions.
El Segundo-based electric car developer Evelozcity is now known as Canoo. The company announced a re-branding and several new hires March 25, BuiltInLA reports. Canoo was founded in 2017 and aims to launch its first model in the U.S. by 2021. Among its new hires are former BMW Manufacturing president Clemens Schmitz-Justen, who will lead Canoo’s manufacturing and James Cox, who will direct Canoo’s digital operations after serving as global product head for Uber Technologies Inc.
Tech reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335. Follow him on Twitter @samsonamore.
