Lucid will build Saudi EV factory by 2026, Chairman says

Lucid Group is willing to build an electric vehicle (EV) factory in Saudi Arabia (KSA) by 2025 or 2026 and is negotiating details with the Kingdom’s ministries.  

As such, the maker of the $169,000 Air sedan has been in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to build an EV plant near the Red Sea city of Jeddah, people familiar with the matter said.  

According to the people, the Public Investment Fund, which is Lucid’s largest shareholder, would provide much of the money for the site at the King Abdullah Economic City.   

In addition, the PIF and Lucid have also considered a possible site in Neom, a new city being developed in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.  

“Now that we are successfully producing and selling cars in the U.S., our attention is turning to this factory here,” Lucid Chairman Andrew Liveris told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday at a mining conference in Riyadh. 

Lucid shares fell 0.3 percent to $45.33 as of 9 a.m. Wednesday in New York, before the start of regular trading.  

Liveris, the former Chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Dow Chemical Co., said he’d taken delivery of one of Lucid’s cars in Florida. The Newark, California-based company’s goal for 2021 was to hand over 577 vehicles to customers — 520 limited-release units of its debut Dream Edition, and the rest a lower-spec Grand Touring version.  

“We’ll have a lot more to say to the market about the sorts of things we’re seeing in the supply chain because we’re experiencing supply chain issues,” Liveris said.   

In December, Liveris declined to comment on Lucid’s disclosure that it received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.   

The company’s listing is a huge dividend for PIF, which had invested more than $1 billion in the company in 2018 for a substantial stake. In the second half of this year, it also expects to deliver its first Lucid Air, which prices start from $69,000 after tax credits.  

While it has yet to generate revenue, the company also expects the Lucid Air to outperform the Tesla Model S.  

Lucid will offer a range of more than 4.5 miles per kilowatt-hour, which exceeds that of the Tesla Model S (more than 4 miles/KwH) – according to Lucid’s offering to investors – and that translates to a range of more than 517 miles for the Lucid, about 26 percent more than the Tesla Model S.