Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director of Lucid Middle East
Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director of Lucid Middle East, said the company's first international electric vehicle (EV) plant in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) represents about 10% of the facility's total area.
On the sidelines of opening the plant, Sultan told Argaam that the company plans to add eight to 10 buildings to complete the full manufacturing facility in three and a half years.
The firm, which is partly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), will work on assembling car parts from Arizona until the manufacturing facility is completed.
The plant's production capacity is 5,000 vehicles per shift, with the possibility of increasing it, Sultan said. He added that the target production capacity is 155,000 vehicles annually after the manufacturing facility is completed, then the company will begin exporting.
The factory has a strategical logistics location on the Red Sea coast, where shipping can be made to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Sultan added that Saudi Arabia is witnessing transformation, where Lucid aims to play a role in bringing the vehicle manufacturing technology to the Kingdom.
Lucid received support and facilities from several government authorities, such as the Ministry of Investment, Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and Saudi Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), along with other incentives to facilitate foreign investment.
Elsewhere, Sultan said EVs are witnessing strong demand, pointing to some headwinds in the EV sector due to global economic conditions and fierce competition.
He added that a 10% price reduction in the EV sector supports demand and customer appetite in the Kingdom to buy cars at very fair and balanced prices.
Lucid Group opened its first EV factory in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) on Sept. 27, Argaam reported.
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