Lucid, a leading US-based manufacturer of electric vehicles (EV) has made a partnership agreement with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) to develop EV technology in the Kingdom. Lucid is backed by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund and will team up with the KACST team to conduct joint research on developing battery technologies, aerodynamics, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence.

Faisal Sultan, the company’s Vice President and Managing Director for the Middle East, highlighted that collaborative effort will be used to facilitate the transition to sustainable energy. The research to be undertaken by Lucid and KACST will extend to the investigation of the performance of electric vehicles in the Kingdom’s climate.

The partnership will establish a joint R&D headquarters at KACST’s national laboratories. This facility is scheduled to be completed by Q3 of 2024. Talal bin Ahmed Al Sudairi, the Senior Vice President for the Research and Development sector at KACST emphasized the project’s importance in developing electric vehicle systems and advancing autonomous driving technologies. 

Lucid opened its first plant outside the United States in Saudi Arabia last year with an initial capacity to develop 5000 units per year. The Saudi government has announced that it will purchase 100,000 EVs from Lucid over a decade, emphasizing its support for sustainable transportation and combating climate change.

This cooperation between Lucid and KACST looks to play a major role in developing solutions for the transportation and energy sectors and contributing to the economic growth and sustainability goals of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.