RIYADH — The electric-vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. unveiled plans to start manufacturing its cars in Saudi Arabia in 2024. The EV giant has submitted a request for Saudi model Certificate of Accreditation. This was announced by Saud Al-Askar, deputy governor of the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO). The Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, owns a majority stake in Lucid, whose shares are traded on the US NASDAQ Stock Market last month. Lucid is the American competitor to Telsa, and PIF has benefited from investing early in it, as it owns about 62 percent of its shares. The gains of PIF have exceeded $22 billion from its investment in Lucid in Nasdaq. Lucid's listing is a huge dividend for PIF, which had invested more than $1 billion in the company in 2018 for a substantial stake. Lucid, which has yet to generate revenue, expects to deliver its first Lucid Air, whose prices start from $69,000 after tax credits, in the second half of this year. The company also expects the Lucid Air to outperform the Tesla Model S. Lucid will offer a range of more than 4.5 miles per kilowatt-hour, which exceeds that of the Tesla Model S (more than 4 miles/KwH), according to Lucid's offering to investors on July 13, and that translates to a range of more than 517 miles for the Lucid, about 26 percent more than the Tesla Model S. SASO said recently that it had received several requests from electric vehicle manufacturers for the Certificate of Accreditation for electric vehicle that is in compliance with their technical regulations. The SASO sources said that it is continuing its work to introduce the technical requirements for granting Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for electric vehicles, chargers and their accessories. It urged all car dealers and manufacturers to abide by obtaining the Saudi model Certificate of Accreditation. SASO said that it has granted permission to import electric vehicles and their chargers commercially, provided that the Saudi model Certificate of Accreditation is issued for the targeted models before the start of the import process. PIF confirmed earlier that its investment a few years ago in Lucid company reflects its strategy of investing in future opportunities that provide growth in returns. "Investment in Lucid is a step towards diversifying the returns for the Saudi sovereign fund and for the Kingdom as a whole," it pointed out.
