Lucid Motors is upgrading its semi knock-down (SKD) facility in Saudi Arabia so it can manufacture vehicles entirely on-site, instead of only assembling semi knock-down kits as it has done since September 2023.
The EV maker, which started earlier this year assembling its second model — the Gravity — at the facility in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), aims to start full vehicle production late next year.
Targeting a capacity of up to 150,000 units per year, Lucid will export to the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, but also to European and Asian markets — excluding China.
On Monday, the interior of Lucid Motors‘ facility in the Middle East was showcased for the first time by state-owned media outlet Al Arabiya, which interviewed the company’s Vice President for the Middle East, Faisal Sultan.
Lucid‘s VP for the Middle East Faisal Sultan reaffirmed that the EV maker will be producing its mid-size platform in the KAEC plant, which is already “being designed and engineered.”
The executive noted that “there is a lot of input com Saudi talent” in the plant and in Riyadh, where Lucid has set up its Middle East headquarters.
Faisal Sultan added that “about 65% of the workforce is Saudi nationals,” who “have been trained” in the US plant and are now “back here on the assembly line producing these vehicles.”
According to the VP, the factory’s current capacity is 5,000 vehicles annually, and “with the expansion, it will reach 155,000.”
“Of course, this is a very large number, and it needs a large workforce as well,” he admitted, saying that “one of our goals in the kingdom is to make sure that the manufacturing is done in a clear way.”
Earlier this year, Sultan confirmed that Lucid will be launching its midsize platform in late 2026 or early 2027, with plans to be manufactured “within the kingdom” not only for GCC markets but also to other regions outside the Middle East.
The EV maker plans to expand into one or two new GCC countries annually in the coming years, Faisal Sultan also told Al Arabiya in July.
“We are already in the UAE — we have a retail outlet and a service location,” Sultan said, adding that the company is “rapidly expanding in the UAE” and in Saudi Arabia, which he described as Lucid‘s two “core markets” in the region.
In late June, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Trade has received the first batch of Saudi-assembled Lucid Motors vehicles, a month after it first issued procurements for the brand’s electric vehicles.
The first tender documents were published at the end of May and covered shipments of Lucid vehicles to embassies and consulates.
The company has been expanding its retail presence in the Gulf, opening its first showroom in Abu Dhabi in June, the fourth Lucid store in the Middle East.
The company also operates two permanent studios in Saudi Arabia — one in Riyadh and another in Jeddah.
Last week, Lucid has debuted the Gravity SUV in Europe.
It has further begun building the model for the continent, with the first customer deliveries expected in early January, executives said at the IAA Auto Show in Munich.
Late last week, interim CEO Marc Winterhoff told investors at the Morgan Stanley Conference on Friday that the company is internally sticking to its original goal of building 20,000 vehicles this year.
The EV maker trimmed its official 2025 production guidance to a range of 18,000 to 20,000 units in early August.
However, according to Winterhoff, the Newark, California-based EV maker’s workforce is “giving everything to make that happen.”
