Faraday Future says the fire was not caused by the battery, but the damage was enough to make the building dangerous to reoccupy.
Faraday Future has had an unusual history since first unveiling its FF 91 electric SUV in 2016. The company has been plagued with financial troubles, has only produced the FF 91 in limited quantities since 2023 and delivered them to B-list celebrities, and is now pivoting to rebadged Chinese minivans with a giant screen in place of a grille. Now, an old prototype at the automaker's Los Angeles headquarters caught fire Sunday morning, causing an explosion that destroyed part of the building, as reported by TechCrunch.
The fire was reported to the Los Angeles Fire Department at 4:37 a.m., and the fire was put out within 40 minutes, with no injuries reported. However, the explosion damaged the building that housed the prototype, a small two-story building next to the main headquarters. The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety deemed the damage bad enough to "red tag" the structure, meaning it will require construction work before people can safely reenter.
In a statement posted to social media, Faraday Future referred to the prototype as an "FF 91 show vehicle" and said the "building's wall surfaces sustained minor damage, while all windows remained intact." Faraday Future said it is investigating the cause of the fire, but stated there was "no evidence that the battery pack was the cause of the fire or explosion for now."
The company claims possible causes are "an electrical short circuit in the showroom wiring or a short circuit related to a loose connection in the vehicle’s 12V low-voltage system." Since the prototype was one of the earliest FF 91 test vehicles, Faraday Future says the interior materials did not meet the flammability standards of the company's production vehicles, so the company says a recall of its production vehicles is unlikely.
The situation is made more complex by the fact that Faraday Future sold its headquarters in 2019, the same year the company's founder filed for personal bankruptcy and stepped down from his role as CEO. Since then, Faraday Future has leased the property, but was sued by its landlord, Rexford Industrial, in February 2024 due to late payments. The suit was settled in April, and at the time, the lease was set to expire by the end of September 2025. The property is currently listed as available by commercial real estate company CBRE, and a Faraday Future representative told TechCrunch he was "unsure of the current status of Faraday Future’s lease."
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