Opening of the First Electric Car Factory in Saudi Arabia

Lucid Motors announced today, Wednesday, that it has opened its first global factory in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, under an agreement aimed at enhancing efforts to transition to electric vehicles in the Kingdom. Last year, Lucid revealed plans to establish the factory in Jeddah and stated that Saudi Arabia had signed an agreement to purchase up to 100,000 vehicles from the company over ten years. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which is the largest shareholder in Lucid, is tasked with leading the Kingdom's plan to reduce dependence on oil revenues as it enters the electric vehicle industry, which is dominated by countries like China and the United States. In 2022, Saudi Arabia launched its first electric vehicle brand, "Seer," and announced investments of $6 billion in a steel sheet complex and a factory for electric vehicle batteries. It was also reported that Tesla, a leader in the field, is in early-stage discussions to establish a factory in Saudi Arabia. The "AMP-2" factory, affiliated with Lucid, in King Abdullah Economic City, will assemble the luxury electric sedan, Lucid Air, with an initial production capacity of 5,000 vehicles per year, which will be expanded to produce 155,000 vehicles annually in the future. Lucid's other manufacturing facility is located in Arizona, USA. In May, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which owns just over 60% of the electric car company, agreed to invest $1.8 billion as part of a special stock offering for Lucid that same month.