Lucid Motors is gearing up to build a new factory in Saudi Arabia, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Andrew Liveris, chairman of the Arizona-based marque, stated to Bloomberg Television during a conference this week in Riyadh that “now that we are successfully producing and selling cars in the US, our attention is turning to this factory [in Saudi Arabia].” Rumours of a Lucid Motors factory in the Kingdom, set to be only the second production facility for the all-electric brand, have raged since KSA became a principal backer in 2018.
Though Neom, a planned city in the most northwestern Tabuk province aiming to become a major tourist hub for KSA, is among the touted locations for the facility, Jeddah, the Kingdom’s commercial centre-point and a port city on the Red Sea, remains an unconfirmed frontrunner. Liveris did not comment on any potential site.
Construction, set to be completed by 2025 or 2026, is expected to be bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Lucid Motors’ largest shareholder.
Following the positive response to its first production model, Lucid Motors previously confirmed that 577 examples of its Air e-sedan – 520 of the 1,111 hp ‘Dream Edition’ and 57 in ‘Grand Touring’ guise – would be rolled out after customer deliveries began on October 30. Lucid Motors later confirmed that, with reservations for the Air having topped expectations at 17,000+, the production capacity at its AMP-1 manufacturing plant in Casa Grande would increase to 90,000 from 34,000 by 2023 to make room for the new ‘Project Gravity’ e-SUV. “Supply chain issues” though mean the Arizona brand’s initial roll-out timeline has been delayed.
