Saudi Arabia has chosen to enter the EV market by launching its own brand with Foxconn after investing substantially in Lucid. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to diversify the country’s economy to lessen its dependency on the oil sector.
The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund announced this week that it would establish the Ceer electric car brand together with Foxconn of Taiwan. It will create EVs in Saudi Arabia for the first time ever. It also designs, manufactures, and markets various vehicles for customers in the nation and the MENA area, including sedans and sports utility vehicles.
Interestingly, Saudi Arabia’s EV brand will license component technology from BMW through a joint venture with Foxconn. The future “infotainment, connection, and self-driving technology” of EVs be under Foxconn’s responsibility in the meantime. However, it is unclear at this time if the Taiwanese corporation would contribute its own funds to the joint venture.
Foxconn to Design Electrical Architecture
Foxconn will be responsible for the electrical design of the cars. Resulting in a consequence, there should be “a spectrum of goods that will pioneer in the fields of entertainment, connection, and self-driving technology.” Despite chairman Young Liu claims Foxconn and Ceer seek to make EVs widely available. Unfortunately, there is no information available on the market placement of Ceer EVs.
Each Ceer car will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia. 2025 is the anticipated release date for the initial units. Ceer will also generate up to 30,000 direct and indirect employment, over $150 million in FDI. By 2034, the company would probably make a contribution of $8 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP.
