Saudi Arabia Launches Its' First Electric Vehicle Brand 'Ceer'

(Reuters) Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth said on Thursday it will make electric cars in the kingdom under a joint venture with Apple supplier Foxconn as part of a push to build new industries and lessen dependence on oil.

Ceer "is the first Saudi automotive brand to produce electric vehicles in Saudi Arabia, and will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, including sedans and sports utility vehicles," PIF said in a statement.

PIF said its cars would be available in 2025, adding Ceer would draw more than $150 million in foreign direct investment, create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs and is projected to contribute $8 billion to the kingdom's GDP by 2034.

HRH Crown Prince Launches #Ceer, the First Saudi Electric Vehicle Brand. https://t.co/nKl5GvYcdW#DrivingTheFuture#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/cX3tlYumiM

— SPAENG (@Spa_Eng) November 3, 2022

An investment strategy announced last year aims for more than $100 billion in FDI annually and Saudi Arabia still lags behind those targets, with just over $4 billion in inflows in the first half of this year.

Lucid Group Inc, which is more than 60% owned by PIF, is building an electric vehicle assembly plant in Jeddah with an eventual capacity to manufacture 150,000 vehicles a year. The Saudi government signed a deal with Lucid to buy up to 100,000 of its cars over the next 10 years.

The kingdom is also making a push into mining and said in May that it would build an electric vehicle battery metals plant.

PIF did not disclose funding details and did not say how much a Ceer plant would cost or where in the kingdom it would be built. A PIF spokesman could not be reached for further comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Saudi Arabia and Foxconn were in talks to jointly build a $9 billion facility that could make microchips, electric-vehicle components and other electronics in NEOM, a futuristic $500 billion city being built in Saudi Arabia's desert.

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