Lucid opens first EV factory in Saudi Arabia

Lucid Group’s factory

Lucid Group opened its first electric vehicle (EV) factory in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC).

The factory is Lucid’s second advanced manufacturing plant (AMP-2).

The AMP-2 received support from the Ministry of Investment, the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and KAEC, according to an official statement.

The AMP-2 facility has begun semi knocked-down (SKD) assembly and is expected to have an annual capacity of 5,000 cars. The initial operation re-assembles Lucid Air vehicle 'kits' that are pre-manufactured at the company's US AMP-1 Manufacturing Facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Lucid aims to transition AMP-2 to complete build unit (CBU) production after the middle of the decade, with an additional annual capacity of 150,000 cars.

The car maker expects to employ hundreds of Saudi nationals in the first few years and eventually, grow the workforce into the thousands.

The plant's strategic location near Jeddah will also act as a catalyst to further grow and expand the newly established domestic supply chain, creating demand for local suppliers and fostering long-term growth. Jeddah's position on the Kingdom's Red Sea coast already offers robust supply chain access by land and sea and enables Lucid to export its finished luxury electric vehicles to other regions in the future.

Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director Middle East, Lucid Group, said: “The opening of our facility today marks the beginning of our production operations to assemble our world class Lucid Air. AMP-2 in KAEC, in addition to our existing AMP-1 facility in Arizona, gives us the ability to efficiently fulfill the recently signed agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia to purchase up to 100,000 vehicles over a ten-year period, with an initial commitment to purchase 50,000 vehicles and an option to purchase up to an additional 50,000 vehicles over the same period."

The Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority (ECZA) recently granted Lucid the operating license for its manufacturing unit, which spans an area of more than 1.35 million square meters, representing nearly 31% of the total area allocated for vehicle manufacturing at KAEC.

In February 2022, Emaar The Economic City (Emaar EC) signed a development and lease agreement with Lucid LLC at a total value of SAR 113.5 million, Argaam reported.