Lucid Motors is expanding its footprint in the Middle East as it prepares to begin production of the Cosmos mid-size SUV by the year end at its second EV plant.
Speaking with Arab media outlet Asharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday, Lucid‘s President of the Middle East Faisal Sultan revealed that the company has installed more than 100 AC chargers across the Kingdom — available free of charge.
Lucid‘s 100-charger deployment adds to a landscape where most early-stage chargers still offer free or subsidized access.
The Kingdom currently has over 2,800 charging points distributed across major cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, though the network remains heavily concentrated in those urban centers.
The PIF-backed Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Company (EVIQ) — a joint venture between the sovereign wealth fund and the Saudi Electricity Company — is targeting 5,000 fast chargers across 1,000 locations by the end of the decade.
Saudi Arabia is accelerating its EV infrastructure buildout, part of Vision 2030, which targets 30% of all vehicles in Riyadh to be electric by the end of the decade.
According to Sultan, the market is taking shape quickly, driven by government support, expanding charging infrastructure and growing consumer awareness of the importance of shifting toward sustainable transport.
The Middle East is Lucid‘s second-largest market after the United States.
The company currently operates three studios in Saudi Arabia — in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Al Khobar — along with two in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
In late 2024, the EV maker established its Middle East headquarters in Riyadh, in the King Abdullah Financial District.
Sultan, who joined Lucid in mid-2019 as Head of Global Operations, was later promoted to President of the Middle East region.
Saudi Backing
Lucid is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has invested over $9 billion in the company since 2018.
The fund’s stake currently sits at approximately 56.9%, following a $550 million convertible preferred stock investment in April through its affiliate Ayar Third Investment Company — part of a broader $1.05 billion capital raise disclosed alongside the appointment of Silvio Napoli as permanent CEO.
Speaking at the Bank of America 2026 Automotive Summit in March, CFO Taoufiq Boussaid described PIF’s commitment to Lucid as going beyond finances.
“We are a financial priority for them, but we are also a domestic priority for them,” Boussaid said. “I mean, we have a manufacturing facility in the kingdom, which is strategic.”
GCC Expansion
The executive reaffirmed the company’s expansion plans for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — which he had first mentioned last year.
In an interview with Al Arabiya last July, the executive said Lucid planned to expand into one or two new GCC countries per year.
He described Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the company’s two “core markets” in the region, adding that Lucid was “rapidly expanding” in both.
Months later, Sultan said that the company would “continue to expand” in the GCC and broader Middle East and North Africa region.
In a June 2024 interview, he had gone further: “We are definitely going to the wider GCC market, MENA market, you know, and the world, some other selected markets where we will export out of there,” Sultan said, referring to the Saudi plant.
As of this week, Lucid has not announced plans to enter additional Middle Eastern markets beyond Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Saudi Plant
Lucid‘s Saudi plant, located in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), has been transitioning from a semi-knockdown assembly operation into a complete build unit facility.
The Cosmos mid-size SUV will be the first model to roll off the upgraded line — with production exclusively based in the kingdom, unlike the Air and Gravity, which are manufactured at Lucid‘s Casa Grande plant in Arizona.
The CFO noted that the mid-size platform “will create jobs” and “bring new technology to the kingdom.”
Boussaid said the units produced this year will be followed by a “relatively slow ramp in 2027 and then moving towards full capacity in 2028.”
Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff — who has since transitioned to Chief Operating Officer — confirmed earlier this year that the Cosmos project was “on schedule,” a claim Sultan echoed days later.
Winterhoff told Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu in March that the Cosmos is “very much up there on par with how the Air and the Gravity perform.”
The company has also been strengthening its regional team.
In late March, Lucid appointed Rainer Lang — a former Siemens Healthineers executive — as Head of Finance for the Middle East.
Days later, it hired a Tesla supply chain manager to bolster procurement operations ahead of mid-size production.
The Saudi plant is targeting a capacity of up to 150,000 units per year, with exports planned to GCC countries as well as European and Asian markets, excluding China.
A second model under the mid-size platform — the ‘Earth‘ — will follow the ‘Cosmos.’
Investors Concerns
Lucid reported first-quarter 2026 earnings on Tuesday.
Revenue reached $282.5 million, up roughly 20% year-over-year, but the company posted a net loss of $1.028 billion — wider than the $366.2 million loss recorded a year ago.
Gross margin deteriorated to negative 110%.
The quarter was marked by a 29-day stop-sale on the Gravity SUV after a supplier quality issue with second-row seat belt anchors, which disrupted deliveries.
Lucid delivered 3,093 vehicles in the period — below both analyst consensus and its year-ago figure.
In the aftermath of the report, several Wall Street analysts slashed their price targets on the EV maker’s stock — which closed 1.0% lower at $6.19 on Wednesday.
