Lucid starts EV deliveries in Saudi Arabia

Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director of Lucid Middle East 

Lucid Motors, partially owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), began its electric vehicle (EV) deliveries to customers in Saudi Arabia, Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director of Lucid Middle East told Argaam.

Sultan expected many EVs to hit the Kingdom’s roads, as the EV maker sees high demand and has thousands of reservations with hundreds of customer deliveries to begin over the coming months.

Lucid has several models including Lucid Air Dream Edition, Lucid Air Grand Touring, and Lucid Touring which will be available soon. Also, there are the original Lucid Pure and the high-speed, super-sports edition, Lucid Air Sapphire.

The price of the Lucid original model EV starts at SAR 440,000 (VAT inclusive) and up to SAR 960,000 for the luxury ultra-performance Dream Edition.

Saudi customers care about the Lucid car design, technology and efficiency. They also prefer the luxury products, as Lucid was among the top producers that offered a luxury EV.

Lucid is sending hundreds of cars to the Kingdom from the US Arizona state on a weekly basis. The EV maker targets to deliver thousands of cars, but this depends on the number of cars per shipment.

Lucid production factory in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) will be ready to launch operations in Q3-Q4 2023, Sultan indicated, adding that the factory will have a capacity of thousands of units and will help the re-assembly of cars to accelerate the delivery pace and boost supply by year-end.

Sultan also noted that the new factory will cater to the needs of customers in Saudi Arabia. This is in addition to exports to the GCC countries.

The complete-vehicle unit will be established by 2025 or 2026, with a production capacity of 150,000 ready-for-sale EVs in Saudi Arabia and the GCC countries. 

As a startup, Lucid’s market share is not big. However, the company is competing other luxury Sedan producers, since it is the sole luxury EV maker.

Selling EVs enhances the company’s presence in the Kingdom and worldwide, Sultan noted.

Lucid operates in the US, Canada and other four European countries and will establish presence in the fifth one soon. It also plans to expand in Europe on an annual basis and open showrooms in UAE by year-end. Consequently, it will have foothold across all the GCC region under its Middle East portfolio.

According to Sultan, the Lucid EV is reliable as it was subject to testing under adverse weather conditions. He also indicated that its maintenance shall be done once a year and can operate up to 10 years minimum.