Faraday Future lost its high-profile ‘Chief Battery Architect’ right before its CES unveiling last month, but today we learn the company scored a big hire for its battery team: former A123 Systems lead engineer Saeed Uzzaman.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Uzzaman was a research engineer before he joined Bosch’s NiMH battery manufacturing effort in 2005. He left Bosch to join A123 System in 2010, where he held several senior engineering roles.
In 2012, A123 and its high-profile customer Fisker Automotive went bankrupt due to financial difficulties after several problems with the Fisker Karma’s 20 KWh battery pack from A123. Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto parts conglomerate, bought both companies’ assets and has since been trying to relaunch Fisker under a new brand, Karma Automotive, as well as keeping A123 in business.
Last year, A123 ran in some troubles after Apple poached five of its battery engineers. The company filed a lawsuit against Apple over unfair competition and non-compete contract violations.
Even though Uzzaman’s expertise appears to be in battery cells manufacturing, we hear that Faraday is currently not looking to make its own cells. Instead, it will source from suppliers and focus on the battery modules, which is the standard model for most if not all electric vehicle makers. But of course, Uzzaman’s skills are likely transferable to battery module engineering and/or manufacturing.
Last week, the company broke ground on its $1 billion EV factory in North Las Vegas.
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