Saudi Arabia’s EV manufacturers

Chatrudee Theparat

Saudi Arabia’s EV manufacturers Ceer and Lucid are convinced to use Thailand as their production base to supply to Asean market.

The Board of Investment (BOI) persuaded two EV’ manufacturers of Saudi Arabia to use Thailand as production bases to export to Asean.

Mr. Narit Therdsteerasukdi, the secretary general of the Board of Investment (BoI) and the executive committee secretariat of the National EV Policy Board, said Thailand has approached two EV manufacturers of Saudi Arabia including Ceer, the first Saudi Arabia electric vehicle brand and Lucid to use Thailand as production base to supply to Asean.

Saudi Arabia recently announced its ambitious plan to produce its own EVs. To do so, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country's sovereign wealth fund, has established two companies to manufacture EVs to export to seven countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries(GCC), under two brands of Ceer and Lucid.

Ceer is a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Taiwan’s Foxconn to manufacture EVs, while PIF also collaborates to BMW to use its innovation and technology to manufacture its own EVs within 2025.

PIF also acquired more than 60% stakes of the US’s Lucid Motor in order to establish a factory in Saudi Arabia. Lucid announced on September 27, 2023 that the first international manufacturing facility would be located in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

In the first phase, the facility has its capacity to assemble 5,000 Lucid vehicles per annum, and in the future, the complete production facility at KAEC, including the assembly facility, is expected to have a total capacity of 155,000 EVs per annum.

He said in the sideline meeting of the two countries in Asaen -GCC Riyadh Summit in Saudi Arabia in October, Thailand was urged to invest in EV parts and components in Saud Arabia while Prime Minister Mr. Srettha Thavisin also convinced Saudia Arabia’s EV companies to use Thailand as production base to supply to Asean.

He said in the first phase of the electric vehicle supporting program or EV 3 started from 2022, a total of 15 companies have joined in , including electric passenger cars, electric pickup trucks, and electric motorcycles.

The program has effectively invigorated the growth of the electric vehicle industry in Thailand. The first nine months of the program (January- September, 2023) recorded new EV registrations for 50,340 units, marking 7.6 times higher compared to the same period last year. Thailand’s continuous EV promotion package since 2017 have resulted in investment in the EV industry worth 61.42 billion baht in manufacturing battery electric vehicles (BEVs), battery electric motorcycles, EV’s parts and components, and charging stations.