Lucid Motors .. Expansion plans, production increase in Saudi Arabia

US electric car maker, Lucid Motors, recently announced the establishment of its first overseas production line in Saudi Arabia, where it hopes to add another 155,000 units to its delivery schedule by 2025.

Production Enhance:

Lucid Motors hopes to raise its manufacturing rate to more than 500,000 units by mid-decade when its new plant in Saudi Arabia is operational, while the Arizona plant estimated to produce 350,000 vehicles annually.

According to Performance Drive, this is a significant acceleration of the company’s initial production plans, as Lucid initially predicted that it would take until 2030 to produce more than half a million units annually.

The company added that the first manufactured vehicles in the Saudi production line will primarily target the local market, then, the production will be increased aiming at exporting globally.

Multiple incentives:

Reports suggest that Lucid will earn up to $3.4 billion in financing and tax incentives over the next decade or so, as Saudi Arabia looks to become a renewable energy and EV-friendly hub.

CEO of Lucid Motors, Peter Rawlinson, said that with the formal preparation of the groundwork for the new plant, the company can accelerate plans to produce 500K cars annually, and the plans were targeting 2030, but the target level has been accelerated to the middle of the decade. Pointing out the importance of this, especially since there are things that cannot wait,” noting that the current market conditions “really stimulate the transition to battery-powered electric cars, especially in light of the doubling of demand.”

Rawlinson said that the company announced in 2018 the desire of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) to acquire a stake in the company, plans that began to bear fruit a few weeks later and resulted in an investment agreement worth 1$ billion. It laid the foundation for a new relationship between Saudi Arabia and Lucid that culminated in the announcement of this new production facility.

He expressed his happiness with the support of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in achieving sustainability goals and ambitions to reach net zero carbon emissions, as outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030 and the Green Saudi Initiative, as well as taking steps to help diversify the economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by establishing the manufacturing capacity in King Abdullah Economic City for up to 155,000 zero-emission electric vehicles produced annually by Lucid Motors.”

Possible investments:

In the same context, Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih said, upon signing the agreement, that the establishment of the factory “unleashes the entire electric car industry here in the Kingdom, and our goal is not to stop at Lucid.” Al-Falih concluded: “We have other electric car manufacturers in advanced discussions with us that will follow in Lucid’s footsteps.

Expansion plans:

The electric car maker announced opening of its first studio in Europe on May 13^th. This studio is located in Munich, Germany, as part of its efforts to expand in Europe, and this comes with its plans to expand in other parts around the world. Last March, Lucid Motors announced the opening of a new studio in Toronto. It is the company’s second outlet in Canada and the 23rd in its growing retail network in North America. According to news reports, the company will begin deliveries of its Lucid Air Dream car in Canada.

Saudi goals:

According to Bloomberg, Saudi Arabia aims to produce hundreds of thousands of cars annually, by uniting its efforts with the emerging electric car manufacturer, as the Kingdom aspires to become a hub for global auto manufacturers.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to diversify its economy away from oil and aims to manufacture about 300,000 cars annually, according to the Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef, who said that half of those cars, will be manufactured by Lucid.

In his interview with the US Agency, Al-Khorayef pointed out that Lucid, partly owned by the PIF, will export 85% of the electric vehicles it produces in the Kingdom, while other manufacturers are expected to export about 25% of their production. He pointed out that exports of cars will target Indian, Chinese, African markets and the rest of the Middle East.

The PIF owns about 60% of “Lucid” group shares, after it acquired a stake of it when Lucid was a private company, and then supported its listing on the stock exchange by merging with a private company for the purpose of acquisition. Lucid has recently started production of its first model of electric car, “Air Sedan”, at its factory in Casagrande, Arizona, USA.

The electric car maker also reached an agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Finance recently to buy about 100,000 Lucid cars over the next decade.