Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors has started the shipping of the first Saudi Arabia-made Lucid Air luxurious sedans from its newly established manufacturing facility in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Rabigh.
Last week, Lucid expanded its presence in the UAE by opening a new showroom at Dubai’s City Walk. This follows the late 2022 launch of the Riyadh Studio, which marked the company’s first retail location in the Middle East.
The shipment includes 350 vehicles, marking a significant milestone for the electric vehicle (EV) maker as it expands its footprint in the Gulf region, according to a video posted on X.
This first shipment is destined for the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries, a user noted on X, highlighting the broader reach of Lucid’s innovative electric vehicles (EVs) in the region.
“350 Lucid cars, which is the first shipment of Lucid cars manufactured in King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh and exported to the United Arab Emirates and the rest of the Gulf countries,” Mohammed Alamer wrote on X.
Lucid manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, officially opened last September, is the company’s second Advanced Manufacturing Plant (AMP-2) and its first outside the United States. The facility is designed to support the production of Lucid‘s EVs for both the local market and export, as stated by the company last year.
Currently, the AMP-2 facility is engaged in semi knocked-down (SKD) assembly, with an annual capacity to assemble 5,000 cars. This process involves re-assembling Lucid Air vehicle kits that are pre-manufactured at the company’s AMP-1 Manufacturing Facility in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Looking ahead, Lucid plans to transition the AMP-2 to complete build unit (CBU) production after the middle of the decade, significantly increasing its capacity. The plant is expected to achieve an additional annual capacity of 150,000 cars, bringing the total production capacity of the KAEC facility to 155,000 electric vehicles per year.
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In the first quarter, Lucid reported delivering 1,967 vehicles globally, marking a nearly 40 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Over 500 of these vehicles were delivered to Saudi Arabia, as disclosed by CEO Peter Rawlinson during a recent earnings conference call.
Rawlinson emphasized the strong demand for Lucid’s products in the Saudi market, particularly for the upcoming SUV model.
“We’re not planning to guide on the split in the future, but our deliveries in Q1 exceeded 500 units,” Rawlinson said. “I’m very confident that we’ve got equal demand for our products in Saudi, particularly for the SUV, which is going to be quite an interesting market. But again, I’m not in a position to guide right now on these. And we haven’t decided yet where we would guide on that specific split.”
The company has announced on Tuesday the election of the former vice president at Intel Capital Lisa M. Lambert to its board of directors, effective immediately.
One of the world’s largest investment advisors, Vanguard Group, has increased its position in the luxurious manufacturer by 104 percent in the first quarter of the year, a recent form reveals.
Vanguard’s fund Small-Cap Growth Index Fund Investor Shares filed a new form last week where it disclosed holding 13,267,848 shares in Lucid. Based on the current stock price of $2.86, the stake is valued at $37.95 million.
In an email sent on Monday, Lucid Motors announced that is introducing a new leasing incentive offering a $3,750 Air Credit for new customers in the United States. The incentive is in addition to the company’s existing $5,000 bonus applicable to any vehicle from its inventory as Lucid eyes higher sales in its main market.
Also known as MKBHD, Marques Brownlee has published on Friday a new video reviewing Lucid Motors‘ most luxurious variant of its first production model, the Air.
In the video, which reached nearly 400 thousand views after just 18 hours, he claims that the 1,234 horsepower variant Sapphire is “one of the best sedans ever made” adding that he’s also including the combustion engine sedans in that evaluation.
The CEO Peter Rawlinson has recently criticized Tesla, suggesting the company is “distracted” and “losing its way” adding that it “really falls to Lucid to take the technology to a whole new level”.
The electric vehicle startup is reportedly gearing up to announce a partnership providing Hyundai’s premium brand, Genesis, with electric motors.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
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