Faraday Future said on Thursday that an early prototype of its FF91 electric vehicle caught fire at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters on the morning of Sept. 28. No injuries were reported, but the building has been deemed off-limits while authorities investigate the incident.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the fire at 4:37 a.m. and extinguished it within 40 minutes. Sprinklers helped slow the blaze, though an explosion blew out part of a wall. Firefighters had to force entry, and an inspector subsequently red-tagged the property.
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Faraday Future said the vehicle involved was an approximately nine-year-old prototype known internally as B40. In a statement, the company noted that the fire did not involve the battery pack and emphasized that “its interior materials do not meet the flammability standards of production vehicles. This beta prototype is entirely different from FF91 production vehicles, and therefore, we believe this incident will not result in any recall of production models.”
The company is investigating the cause of the fire and said it may have originated from a short circuit in showroom wiring or a loose connection in the vehicle’s 12-volt system.
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This is not the first fire involving Faraday Future prototypes. A similar incident reportedly occurred in 2022, though few details were released at the time.
The fire comes amid broader challenges for Faraday Future, which has faced delays with the FF91, explored new vehicle plans including a Chinese-made van, and attracted attention for a controversial cryptocurrency initiative. The lease on the Los Angeles property where the fire occurred ended in late September.