Saudi Arabia’s Ceer gets green light for EV production factory: Saudi Arabia’s first electric vehicle brand Ceer — a JV between Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Company (Foxconn) — received a manufacturing license from KSA’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources for its planned EV production plant in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), the Saudi Press Agency reports.

The details: Ceer’s USD 96 mn EV production plant will span 1 mn square meters and will be located in the Industrial Valley of KAEC, the news agency notes. A timeline on when the factory will become operational was not provided.

About Ceer: The company — first established in November last year — is expected to contribute USD 8 bn to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2034. Once it kicks off operations, the company is expected to rake in over USD 150 mn in foreign direct investment. Ceer’s EVs are expected to hit the market in 2025. Ceer will license component technology from BMW to use in the development process.

Not the first EV company PIF is throwing its weight behind: PIF invested USD 1 bn in EV manufacturer Lucid Motors — making it a majority shareholder — back in 2018 and said earlier this month it will purchase some 265.7 mn shares in the company in a private placement set to close on 26 June for c. USD 1.8 bn. Construction of Lucid’s Saudi Arabia production plant began in May this year. 80% of all EVs produced by Lucid Motors will be made in Saudi Arabia by 2030 with 155k EVs produced annually in Saudi Arabia by 2025.