On Tuesday, electric carmaker Lucid Group Inc stated that it had signed a specific agreement with Saudi Arabia government. The agreement with the government was for the purchase of up to 100,000 of its vehicles over the period of the coming 10 years.
Under the agreement, Saudi Arabia gives a commitment to buy 50,000 vehicles, with an option to purchase an additional 50,000 vehicles during the ten year period. The electric carmaker specified the details in a statement, followed by the rise in its shares by 5.4% in extended trading.
This agreement comes forward as the latest deal between the California-based electric vehicle company and Saudi Arabia. Notably, Lucid’s largest shareholder is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund with a stake of around 61% in the company. Currently, Lucid manufactures most of its vehicles in the state of Arizona. Moreover, it plans to build its first overseas production factory in Saudi Arabia later in the year. There, it expects to subsequently manufacture up to 150,000 vehicles very year. According to Lucid, the vehicles purchased by the government of Saudi Arabia are expected to arrive from both of these factories.
How the purchase will take place:
The delivery of the Lucid vehicles is expected to start no later than next year. Annually, the order numbers are initially ranging from 1,000 to 2,000, subsequently increasing to the range of 4,000 to 7,000, from the year 2025. According to a spokeswoman from Lucid, the EV company has not offered any specific discounts for any of the purchased vehicles under the signed agreement. In a regulatory, Lucid specified how Saudi government would pay for the purchase. They would either pay the US or Saudi retail price, depending on whichever is lower at the time. Additionally, they would cover the costs of import and other delivery charges.
In February, the automaker cut its 2022 production forecast from the figure 20,000 vehicles to 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles in 2022 owing to supply chain challenges. Lucid Group Inc is also looking to compete with Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc.
In October 2021, the automakers initiated deliveries of its $169,000 Lucid Air premium sedan in the Unites States. Moreover, it stated that it looks forward to delivering the same to Canadian customers at the beginning of Spring 2022.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Lucid announced the Government of Saudi Arabia plans to purchase up to 100,000 electric vehicles from the automaker over ten years.<a href=”https://t.co/QZK3sZrDXV”>https://t.co/QZK3sZrDXV</a> <a href=”https://t.co/b1S89K8FSH”>pic.twitter.com/b1S89K8FSH</a></p>— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Teslarati/status/1519179637036924929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>