Sandoval meets with Faraday; too soon for any special session talk

CARSON CITY — Gov. Brian Sandoval has met personally with executives from electric car manufacturer Faraday Future who are looking to potentially locate its operations in North Las Vegas, but talk of a special legislative session to ink any deal is premature, said Steve Hill, executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.

"The conversations are confidential, and are required to be by law," he said Friday. "The governor has met with them and talked with them and so have I. But the chatter over the past 24 hours is premature."

The Gardena, Calif.-based company is looking at other states as well.

A company spokesman told VentureBeat for a story on its website earlier this summer that besides Nevada, locations in Georgia, Louisiana and California are being considered. Marcus Nelson told VentureBeat a final decision will be made in the third quarter.

Nelson would say Friday only that: "Nevada is still in the running for our planned manufacturing facility — but we are not making any other comments at this time."

"We're still in discussions with them," Hill said. "Certainly nothing has been agreed to at this point. We continue to work with them and hope to get to that point but we're not there yet. We are not that far along in the conversation to make that call."

Lawmakers, on the heels of the deal to bring Tesla's battery plant to Northern Nevada, have authorized a city or county to create an "economic diversification district" giving industries that make up this district tax breaks so long as the industries involved in the project will collectively invest $3.5 billion in Nevada within 10 years.

But there is the possibility that additional legislation could be needed to bring Faraday to Nevada, necessitating a special session of the Legislature, if a deal is ultimately reached.

The company is looking at the Apex site in North Las Vegas, but the 20,000-acre industrial park lacks basic infrastructure, including water and natural gas. Two bills were approved by the 2015 Legislature that could be used to help bring infrastructure to the site.

Speculation has been rampant about Faraday, much of it centering on if the company is "for real" and how "serious" it is. The confusion is fueled by Faraday Future's secrecy

Still, some things are known about the company.

On its website, the company pays homage to Michael Faraday, father of both the electromagnetic motor and electrochemical batteries. (You can just call us FF, the company also says on its website.)

While the company hasn't publicly named its CEO, the website Auto Blog reported that a former Tesla executive, a BMW design manager, a GM official associated with the Chevy Volt, and the former Volvo director of interior design have signed on.

The company's website says: "FF launches in 2017, and follows a similar paradigm: 100% electric, zero-emission, fully-connected and personalized in ways you've never even considered possible."

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801