Transport

Lucid’s Jeddah factory targets new Middle East territories

November 7, 2024, 7:59 AM

Saudi Arabia's EV ambitions take shape as Lucid's Jeddah plant moves towards full production — Lucid has a target capacity of 150,000 cars a year within three years at its Jeddah factory

EVs planned for Asia
150,000 target capacity
AI to stimulate efficiency

Lucid, the Saudi-owned electric vehicle manufacturer based in the US, is moving to full production at its Jeddah factory, with a target capacity of 150,000 cars a year within three years, its robotics provider, Rockwell Automation, said this week.

“Currently it’s for domestic use but when the expanded plant is done, they will cover all Middle East and Asia as well,” Ediz Eren, regional vice-president for the New York-listed firm, said at the Adipec energy exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia has struggled to achieve its goal to revolutionise the country’s transport sector through promoting electric vehicles and leading in their manufacture.

There were fewer than 1,000 EVs on Saudi roads in 2023, despite two Public Investment Fund (PIF) subsidiaries, Lucid, based in California, and Ceer, in which the Taiwan electronics conglomerate Foxconn has a stake, planning to open EV factories in the country.

The Ceer factory, also based in King Abdullah Economic City, an industrial zone in Jeddah, is not yet operational.

Rockwell, which provides the robotics for the EV pioneer Tesla, said it was bidding to win the contract for the Chinese EV giant BYD’s planned $1 billion factory in Turkey, despite a Chinese preference for Chinese robotics, Eren said.

“We are hoping for Turkey but the customer will decide if they go with their traditional Chinese automation vendor,” he said.

The Lucid operation is part of Rockwell’s expansion in Saudi Arabia, working with the state firms Saudi Electricity, Sabic, Aramco and the Saudi Water Authority, which it intends will make up 5 percent of the Wisconsin-based company’s global revenue of $9 billion.

Rockwell won two contracts this year with the PIF-owned state miner Ma’aden for installing AI systems to increase production line efficiency.

Eren said: “They have so many motors in production lines and it’s important to predict when they will break down. There’s no motor that won’t break down. But when? The software helps to predict this breakdown accurately.

“Those motors are expending energy. If you use them more efficiently, with less energy to do the same work, then you are reducing carbon emissions.”

Rockwell plans to move its regional headquarters to Saudi Arabia to help ensure future access to major contracts.

“Saudi is the market that can easily make an important jump in my numbers. There’s this industrial diversification, and ministry of industry and mineral resources digitalisation projects. These are helping us a lot,” Eren said.