Faraday Future gets a $9 million government pandemic loan

Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has obtained a $9,176,800 loan from the Small Business Association’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was recently launched to help small businesses keep people employed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company tells The Verge.

That’s close to the $10 million maximum allowed in the program, and the loan will be 100 percent forgiven as long as Faraday Future uses it for payroll, interest on mortgages, rent, or utilities, and doesn’t lay off any of the 400 or so employees who are still there for the next eight weeks (or rehires any who were recently let go). News of the loan was first reported in China by state-funded outlet The Paper.

Faraday Future is not the only EV startup to have...