Lucid Air Limited Assembly In Saudi Arabia To Start In September

EV startup announced that "vehicle re-assembly operations" are expected to begin next month at its second factory.

Aug 8, 2023 at 3:23pm ET

Lucid Group announced its second-quarter financial results yesterday and provided some updates on its plans during the earnings call.

The EV startup's CEO, Peter Rawlinson, said the company's first overseas plant in Saudi Arabia is expected to start limited production of Lucid Air EVs in September.

Construction on the AMP-2 plant located in King Abdullah Economic City only started a year ago and the facility is still under construction, but Rawlinson said Lucid will start sending partially assembled vehicles from the US to the Saudi Arabia facility that will finish the production process.

The new plant will receive all the parts of the Lucid Air from the AMP-1 factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, and will assemble the cars locally, the executive said according to Automotive News.

"Construction of Lucid's new manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia is well underway, with vehicle re-assembly operations expected to commence in September 2023. At its peak, we expect to manufacture up to 155,000 vehicles per year at the facility."

Lucid Q2 2023 earnings call presentation

Mind you, when the Saudi Arabia plant was first announced in March 2022, Lucid said it would be fully completed in 2025.

Rendering of Lucid Group's future AMP-2 manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia

During the earnings call, Rawlinson also revealed that Lucid finalized the purchase agreement with the Government of Saudi Arabia. The first Lucid Air deliveries to the government look set to take place before the end of the year.

"We're on track to execute on deliveries under the purchase agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia, and thus far I'm pleased with consumer and government demand."

The deal for 50,000 vehicles with the option to purchase an additional 50,000 was first announced in April 2022.

The Saudi Arabian government through its Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Lucid Group's majority stakeholder with 60.5 percent of shares.

The country's sovereign wealth fund increased its stake in Lucid recently through an equity offering that brought the EV startup a total of $3 billion – $1.8 billion of which came from PIF affiliate Ayar Third Investment Company.

Lucid opened its first store in the Middle East in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh in October 2022 and started delivering US-built Air EVs to customers in the country in June 2023.