By Michael Elkins
Shares of U.S. based electric vehicle maker, Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:LCID) are up 0.43% in mid-day trading on Wednesday after the auto company announced Tuesday that they have opened the doors to their first studio in the Middle East in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
The Riyadh Studio will allow Lucid customers to discover what the brand is all about and learn about its products. They can configure and order vehicles from the studio or make inquiries entirely online, or a combination of the two.
“The launch of our first Studio in the Middle East marks yet another step towards Lucid’s mission to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy on a global scale, and I’m delighted this brand-new studio is set to open here in Saudi Arabia,” Lucid chief executive and chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson described in a press release. “Saudi Arabia recognizes the seismic transition toward automobile electrification and it looks to the future to secure a better world for generations to come with Saudi Vision 2030.”
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country's sovereign wealth fund, owns 61% of Lucid Group following a $1 billion investment in the company in 2018. The government of Saudi Arabia has also pledged to buy up to 100,000 Lucid vehicles over a ten-year period.
Lucid Air deliveries in the Middle East are expected to begin before the end of the year, supported by the Casa Grande factory in Arizona. The plant in Saudi Arabia will initially re-assemble Lucid Air vehicle kits that are pre-manufactured at the US plant, but over time, the Saudi Arabia factory will produce complete vehicles.