Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ: LCID) has officially opened the first-ever car manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia, marking a historic move.
This is the company's second Advanced Manufacturing Plant (AMP-2) and first international plant and is expected produce electric vehicles for Saudi Arabia and export to other markets.
The AMP-2 facility is expected to have an annual capacity of 5,000 cars, aiming to transition to complete build unit (CBU) production after the middle of the decade, with an additional annual capacity of around 150,000 cars.
The new facility received significant support from the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA), the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), and the Economic City at King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and will aid in accelerating Saudi Arabia's strategic goal to diversify its economy.
Moreover, as the plant is strategically located near Jeddah, the company is looking forward to expanding the domestic supply chain and enabling the export of its finished luxury electric vehicles to other regions in the future.
With this, Lucid will support the Saudi Green Initiative's imperative to ensure that 30% of new car sales in the Kingdom are electric by 2030.
Also, Lucid expects to employ hundreds of Saudi nationals in the first few years and boost the workforce to thousands.
"Earlier this year, we were thrilled to introduce the first and most advanced electric vehicle, the Lucid Air, to the Saudi Arabia market. 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," stated Faisal Sultan, Vice President and Managing Director Middle East, Lucid Group.
Price Action: LCID shares are trading higher by 1.04% at $5.36 on the last check Wednesday.