RIYADH — The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lucid to purchase a minimum of 50,000 electric vehicles and up to 100,000 electric vehicles over a ten-year period in an effort to diversify its fleet to be more environmentally friendly.

This agreement is a significant move that supports the key objectives of Vision 2030 including diversifying and transforming the economy, society and lives of the people of Saudi Arabia, building new sectors fit for the future and creating skilled jobs for future generations.

It also comes in alignment with the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, which were previously announced by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense.

The agreement with Lucid reflects the government’s efforts to diversify its fleet of vehicles aiming at reducing carbon emission and inspiring sustainable transportation.

Lucid has been selected as they are building a factory to assemble these vehicles within the Kingdom, which will transition over time to full production.

This will support the government’s local content drive, diversify the economy, provide thousands of highly skilled job opportunities and provide economic benefit to the Kingdom in line with Vision 2030.

It will also help Saudi Arabia realize its ambition to be a major regional and global manufacturing base for the next generation of electric vehicles as Lucid aims for the factory to ultimately produce up to 150,000 cars per year.

By entering into the agreement, the Kingdom also aims to diversify the technologies used in the private transport sector as part of its continued efforts to develop technologies for managing vehicles emissions, which includes, but is not limited to:

• the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the Kingdom by using innovative technologies;

• advanced low emission fuel development programs; and

• experimenting and developing technologies for hydrogen-cell vehicles.

Saudi Arabia is placing this order now, as demand for electric vehicles is high, many other governments are considering taking orders. This also provides Saudi Arabia with the opportunity to work with Lucid on the development of new models and vehicles to suit the government's vehicular needs. — SG