Lucid has just opened the doors to its first studio in the Middle East, located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the city’s Al Nakheel District.
The Riyadh Studio will allow Lucid customers to discover what the brand is all about and learn about its products. They can configure and order vehicles from the studio or make inquiries entirely online, or a combination of the two. Visitors will also get a vision of how the company draws inspiration from its home state of California.
“The launch of our first Studio in the Middle East marks yet another step towards Lucid’s mission to inspire the adoption of sustainable energy on a global scale, and I’m delighted this brand-new studio is set to open here in Saudi Arabia,” Lucid chief executive and chief technology officer Peter Rawlinson described in a press release. “Saudi Arabia recognizes the seismic transition toward automobile electrification and it looks to the future to secure a better world for generations to come with Saudi Vision 2030.”
Read: Lucid To Sell Up To 100,000 EVs To Saudi Government Over The Next Decade
Lucid has close ties to Saudi Arabia. In 2018, the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund invested $1 billion into the EV maker while it was still a privately held company. This funding proved pivotal in ensuring the Lucid Air could reach the production line and as it stands, the Public Investment Fund holds nearly 61 per cent of Lucid’s common stock.
This relationship will strengthen in the coming years with confirmation that Lucid will establish a factory at King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. This site will initially re-assemble Lucid Air models that are pre-manufactured at the company’s facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, before being equipped to produce complete vehicles. As many as 155,000 vehicles could be built annually at the site.
Earlier this year, Lucid also announced an agreement with the Saudi government that will see the latter purchase up to 100,000 vehicles over a 10-year period.
