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Ceer gets licence to build EV production facility in Saudi

By Pramod Kumar
Ceer
Ceer CEO James DeLuca addressing the second annual LEAP conference in Riyadh in February 2023
  • PIF-Foxconn joint venture to build in Industrial Valley
  • Electric vehicle range to include sedans and SUVs
  • Estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs to be created

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has granted an industrial licence to Ceer, the first local automotive brand to produce electric vehicles.

The licence is required for Ceer to build its manufacturing facility over one million square metres of land in King Abdullah Economic City’s Industrial Valley. 

Ceer, launched last November, is a joint venture between the sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Taiwanese multinational Foxconn.

Jarrah Al-Jarrah, a ministry spokesperson, said the global light vehicles market is expected to double in the next decade.

He stated that the automotive manufacturing industry will catalyse other priority sectors, such as minerals and chemicals.   

Ceer will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles for consumers in the kingdom and the Mena region, including sedans and sports utility vehicles. 

The EVs will be available in 2025. 

The EV brand is expected to attract over SAR562 million ($149.7m) of foreign direct investment, create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs and directly contribute SAR30 billion to the kingdom’s GDP by 2034.

The PIF also holds a 60.5 percent stake in EV maker Lucid Group, which is building an EV assembly plant in Jeddah that can manufacture 150,000 vehicles annually. 

The Saudi government already signed a deal with Lucid to buy up to 100,000 cars over the next decade.

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