On Tuesday, the main financial backer of Faraday Future, Chinese company LeEco, slashed its U.S. workforce by 70 per cent. Despite these significant cuts, FF claims that it is unaffected by the layoffs and LeEco’s restructuring.

Speaking with Forbes, Faraday Future global chief financial officer Stefan Krause said that LeEco’s change of direction doesn’t impact the U.S. start-up automaker.

“Hearing about layoffs at our strategic partner LeEco is discouraging. However, I want to be clear that these layoffs have no impact on Faraday Future. We remain committed to our immediate goals of diversifying FF’s investment sources and getting FF 91 on the road in 2018, and we remain confident in the outlook for diversifying FF’s global investment,” Krause told employees.

While Krause continues to portray confidence about the company’s future, Electrek asserts that a number of key Faraday Future employees have jumped ship to Tesla in recent weeks, including FF’s director of vehicle purchasing.

Looking beyond its workforce, Faraday Future still faces a number of stumbling blocks if it wants to bring its FF 91 to the street in 2018, namely requiring hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, Forbes says.

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