According to Arab News, Lucid Motors is currently looking at possible locations for a retail outlet in Saudi Arabia — the home country of one of the automaker’s biggest shareholders, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Lucid Motors, the EV carmaker, part-owned by Saudi Arabia’s (PIF), is scouting out locations for retail sales outlets in the Kingdom, CEO Peter Rawlinson told Arab News.@LucidMotors@PIF_enhttps://t.co/935S0LKRbC pic.twitter.com/F9hnGNN5sG
— Arab News Japan (@ArabNewsjp) January 3, 2021
Lucid Motors is a manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles (EVs) designed to give high-end gas guzzlers from the likes of Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW a run for their money. Lucid’s first offering, the Lucid Air, is set to go into mass-production in spring 2021.
The PIF’s $1 billion USD investment in Lucid Motors back in 2018 was “vital” in getting the company where it is today, said Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson in an interview.
“We are reciprocating, and we are going to do something amazing with PIF in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, and that will be very much in line with Vision 2030 to really reduce their economy’s dependence upon fossil fuels,” said Rawlinson.
In addition to paying back the PIF’s investment in kind with retail locations and EV infrastructure in the Saudi Arabian region, Lucid is also working to increase the region’s exposure to electric cars, propagate the use of sustainable energy, and train the country’s youth in cutting-edge, environment-friendly technology.
As for possible locations for retail outlets — dubbed Lucid ‘Studios’ — in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Rawlinson said they “are already looking”. The CEO hopes to have operational retail locations in the country by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
While the world pits Lucid Motors directly against Tesla, Lucid CEO and former chief engineer for the Tesla Model S Peter Rawlinson thinks of the company as a purveyor of ‘premium’ electric cars with no direct competition with Tesla. Lucid’s catalog of EVs starts at $77,400 USD and tops out at $161,500 USD.
In fact, Rawlinson believes, “Right now, Tesla is running six years ahead of the competition. And it befalls Lucid to take up this challenge. That’s one of the reasons we are here, that’s why I am doing what I am doing.”
