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Lucid Group, a US-based luxury electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced on Monday that it has signed agreements with the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA), the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), and King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) to lay the groundwork for a full production factory in Saudi Arabia.
The company said in a press statement that it would set up first international manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia in KAEC, adding that construction of the plant is expected to start in the first half of 2022.
The statement said the KAEC plant will initially re-assemble Lucid Air vehicle "kits" that are pre-manufactured at the company's US AMP-1 Manufacturing Facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.
At its peak, the company expects to manufacture up to 150,000 vehicles per year at the facility, the statement noted.
It said the KAEC plant will initially cater to the domestic market but Lucid is planning to use the facility to export finished vehicles to other global markets. The production capacity in Arizona and Saudi Arabia sites, combined, will exceed 500,000 vehicles per year when each facility reaches its target capacity.
The statement also highlighted that Lucid has established an internship programme with the PIF to provide training for Saudi citizens at its US facilities to develop talent for its Saudi operations.
In a separate stock exchange statement on Monday, Emaar,The Economic City, the master developer of KAEC, said Lucid signed a 114 million Saudi riyal ($30 million) agreement to lease an industrial plot in KAEC's Industrial Valley.
(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
