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Faraday Future’s contract to acquire land from Vallejo, CA set to expire
Amidst great fanfare last May, Faraday Future announced it was considering building a factory and “customer experience center” on North Mare Island, which is part of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard in San Francisco Bay. The naval facility was closed in 1996 and the property was transferred to the city of Vallejo. Beginning in 2014, the city came up with a plan to develop the island into a business park that would be home to light industry, warehouses, and office space.
According to a press release issued by the city back in May, Faraday Future picked North Mare Island “after evaluating 187 sites nationwide,” largely due to its “proximity to Silicon Valley, an employee base that has received (or has access to) automotive training, and a strong regional market for electric vehicles, new technology and transportation innovation. The project represents an opportunity to establish Mare Island and the City of Vallejo as a hub of clean-tech, consumer-oriented, climate-protective ingenuity in the Bay Area.”
The agreement between Faraday Future and the city of Vallejo gave the company a six month window during which it had the exclusive right to negotiate the purchase of a 150 acre parcel of land on North Mare Island. Faraday Future paid the city a fee of $200,000 to secure exclusive negotiating rights for 6 months. In addition, it paid various legal and consulting fees incurred by the city, bringing total payments to $372,000. The agreement included a provision allowing it to be extended twice for periods of no more than 90 days each.
That 6 month period is set to expire today. Faraday Future has told the Vallejo Times Herald it intends to file for an extension. City officials indicate that if a request to extend the agreement is received, “at that time, we will evaluate the request.” Presumably any request for an extension will require payment of additional fees.
That could be a problem for the company, which appears to have run out of money. Earlier this month, work on its factory in North Las Vegas was suspended indefinitely after it fell behind in payment to general contractor AECOM. Whether construction will resume is unknown at this time. Despite a report that Chinese billionaire and financial backer to Faraday Future, Jia Yueting, had raised $600 million recently from former classmates, no one knows what that money will be used for.
Jia is also the force behind Chinese electric car startup LeEco and Lucid Motors, formerly known as Atieva, with offices in Menlo Park, California. Lucid on November 30 announced it has signed a contract to build a $700 million factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, southeast of Phoenix. The treasurer of Nevada says Jia
“doesn’t have any money.” So where is the money coming from to build the Arizona factory?
Faraday Future may request an extension of its contract with the city of Vallejo, but all signs point to the company being in dire financial straits.
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Tesla Cybercab tests are going on overdrive with production-ready units
Tesla is ramping its real-world tests of the Cybercab, with multiple sightings of the vehicle being reported across social media this week.
Tesla is ramping its real-world tests of the Cybercab, with multiple sightings of the autonomous two-seater being reported across social media this week. Based on videos of the vehicle that have been shared online, it appears that Cybercab tests are underway across multiple states.
Recent Cybercab sightings
Reports of Cybercab tests have ramped this week, with a vehicle that looked like a production-ready prototype being spotted at Apple’s Visitor Center in California. The vehicle in this sighting was interesting as it was equipped with a steering wheel. The vehicle also featured some changes to the design of its brake lights.
The Cybercab was also filmed testing at the Fremont factory’s test track, which also seemed to involve a vehicle that looked production-ready. This also seemed to be the case for a Cybercab that was spotted in Austin, Texas, which happened to be undergoing real-world tests. Overall, these sightings suggest that Cybercab testing is fully underway, and the vehicle is really moving towards production.
Production design all but finalized?
Recently, a near-production-ready Cybercab was showcased at Tesla’s Santana Row showroom in San Jose. The vehicle was equipped with frameless windows, dual windshield wipers, powered butterfly door struts, an extended front splitter, an updated lightbar, new wheel covers, and a license plate bracket. Interior updates include redesigned dash/door panels, refined seats with center cupholders, updated carpet, and what appeared to be improved legroom.
There seems to be a pretty good chance that the Cybercab’s design has been all but finalized, at least considering Elon Musk’s comments at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting. During the event, Musk confirmed that the vehicle will enter production around April 2026, and its production targets will be quite ambitious.
News
Tesla gets a win in Sweden as union withdraws potentially “illegal” blockade
As per recent reports, the Vision union’s planned anti-Tesla action might have been illegal.
Swedish union Vision has withdrawn its sympathy blockade against Tesla’s planned service center and showroom in Kalmar. As per recent reports, the Vision union’s planned anti-Tesla action might have been illegal.
Vision’s decision to pull the blockade
Vision announced the blockade in early December, stating that it was targeting the administrative handling of Tesla’s facility permits in Kalmar municipality. The sympathy measure was expected to start Monday, but was formally withdrawn via documents sent to the Mediation Institute and Kalmar Municipality last week.
As noted in a Daggers Arbete report, plans for the strike were ultimately pulled after employer group SKR highlighted potential illegality under the Public Employment Act. Vision stressed its continued backing for the Swedish labor model, though Deputy negotiation manager Oskar Pettersson explained that the Vision union and IF Metall made the decision to cancel the planned strike together.
“We will not continue to challenge the regulations,” Petterson said. “The objection was of a technical nature. We made the assessment together with IF Metall that we were not in a position to challenge the legal assessment of whether we could take this particular action against Tesla. Therefore, we chose to revoke the notice itself.”
The SKR’s warning
Petterson also stated that SKR’s technical objection to the Vision union’s planned anti-Tesla strike framed the protest as an unauthorized act. “It was a legal assessment of the situation. Both for us and for IF Metall, it is important to be clear that we stand for the Swedish model. But we should not continue to challenge the regulations and risk getting judgments that lead nowhere in the application of the regulations,” he said.
Vision ultimately canceled its planned blockade against Tesla on December 9. With Vision’s withdrawal, few obstacles remain for Tesla’s long-planned Kalmar site. A foreign electrical firm completed work this fall, and Tesla’s Careers page currently lists a full-time service manager position based there, signaling an imminent opening.
Tesla Semi Program Director Dan Priestly teased the major improvements to the all-electric Class 8 truck on Thursday night, following the company’s decision to overhaul the design earlier this year.
Priestley said he drove the Semi on Thursday, and the improvements appear to be welcomed by one of the minds behind the project. “Our customers are going to love it,” he concluded.
Just drove the redesigned Semi. Our customers are going to love it. https://t.co/KZ88sf1CDL
— Dan Priestley (@danWpriestley) December 19, 2025
The small detail does not seem like much, but it is coming from someone who has been involved in the development of the truck from A to Z. Priestley has been involved in the Semi program since November 2015 and has slowly worked his way through the ranks, and currently stands as the Director of the program.
Tesla Semi undergoes major redesign as dedicated factory preps for deliveries
Tesla made some major changes to the Semi design as it announced at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting that it changed the look and design to welcome improvements in efficiency.
Initially, Tesla adopted the blade-like light bar for the Semi, similar to the one that is present on the Model Y Premium and the Cybertruck.
Additionally, there are some slight aesthetic changes to help with efficiency, including a redesigned bumper with improved aero channels, a smaller wraparound windshield, and a smoother roofline for better aero performance.
All of these changes came as the company’s Semi Factory, which is located on Gigafactory Nevada’s property, was finishing up construction in preparation for initial production phases, as Tesla is planning to ramp up manufacturing next year. CEO Elon Musk has said the Semi has attracted “ridiculous demand.”
The Semi has already gathered many large companies that have signed up to buy units, including Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., which have been helping Tesla test the vehicle in a pilot program to test range, efficiency, and other important metrics that will be a major selling point.
Tesla will be the Semi’s first user, though, and the truck will help solve some of the company’s logistics needs in the coming years.
Tesla Cybercab tests are going on overdrive with production-ready units
Tesla gets a win in Sweden as union withdraws potentially “illegal” blockade
