Construction has begun on Lucid EV factory in Saudi Arabia: Investment minister

Construction has begun on the Lucid Motors electric vehicle factory in Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom’s Minister of Investment said on Wednesday.

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Workers have broke ground on the site, Khalid al-Falih said during a panel at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

The plant will be one of three assembly centers for the California-headquartered electric vehicle maker, 61 percent of which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Lucid announced in March a $30 million lease agreement with developer Emaar Economic City for a plot of industrial land in the King Abdullah Economic City, near Jeddah.

The Saudi Arabian government in April announced that it had placed an order for between 50,000 and 100,000 electric vehicles from Lucid within the next ten years.

Investment in the company is part of a wider drive to diversify the country’s economy away from oil as part of its Vision 2030 plans.

One ambitious aim of the plan is to have at least 30 percent of the vehicles in the capital Riyadh operate on electric power by the turn of the decade.

In January, the company said that it aims to complete the Saudi factory by 2025 or 2026.

The factory is expected to eventually build up to 150,000 electric vehicles per year.

It currently manufactures its cars including the flagship Lucid Air at a plant in Arizona.

Delivery of vehicles to Saudi Arabia is expected to start no later than 2023, with order numbers initially ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 annually, and increasing to between 4,000 and 7,000 starting in 2025.

Lucid Motors manufactures the Lucid Air, an electric sedan with a range of up to 520 miles. It takes approximately 20 minutes to charge to a range of 300 miles.

The Lucid Air has a maximum horsepower of 1,111 and goes from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. The sedan starts at $77,400.

Read more:

Saudi government orders up to 100,000 electric vehicles from PIF-owned Lucid

Lucid CEO: Saudi Arabia is second-biggest market for car pre-orders

Lucid signs deal to open EV manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, first outside US