Electric carmaker Lucid Group Inc., which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia for the purchase of up to 100,000 of its vehicles over the next 10 years, according to Reuters.
Saudi Arabia committed to purchase 50,000 vehicles under the agreement, with an option to buy an additional 50,000 vehicles during the ten-year time frame, according to a statement from Lucid. Delivery of the vehicles is expected to start no later than 2023, with order numbers initially ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 annually, and increasing to between 4,000 and 7,000 starting in 2025.
The announcement comes just a few months after Lucid said it would build a major manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia to sell the tech-forward electric vehicle to the Middle East region and beyond.
The PIF owns roughly 61% of the electric vehicle carmaker.
Lucid cars are currently manufactured in Arizona, and the Lucid Air – its first production model – is starting to hit the market now. Only 150 of those cars were delivered last year, and the company shrunk its forecasted delivery for 2022. It expects to produce between 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles this year, down from its previous goal of 20,000, according to a February report in autonews.com.
The Lucid Air Pure, its base model, starts at $77,400. Lucid in a regulatory filing said the Saudi government would pay either the U.S. or Saudi retail price, whichever is lower, in addition to import and other delivery costs
The company expects to begin construction on its overseas production factory in Saudi Arabia later this year, where it expects to eventually manufacture up to 150,000 vehicles per year, Reuters reports.
