Lucid In Talks With Saudi Arabia's Sovereign Wealth Fund For EV Factory, Governor Confirms

Lucid Motors is in talks with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to build an electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the country, the fund’s Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan told the Financial Times.

The Public Investment Fund had acquired a 67% stake in the EV maker for about $1.3 billion in 2018.

Bloomberg had earlier this month reported on the talks to build an EV manufacturing facility near the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Earlier this month, reports also said Lucid was in talks to go public through a merger with one of Michael Klein's special purpose acquisition companies. 

Klein’s Churchill Capital Corp IV CCIV SPAC, which is said to be the one in consideration for the merger, has seen its shares soar to more than double since the reports came to light.

Lucid is primed to be one of Tesla Inc.’s TSLA foremost competitors. The EV maker late last year unveiled the Lucid Air sedan with pricing that undercuts the Elon Musk-led company’s Model 3 at $69,900 post-subsidies.

Al-Rumayyan told FT that the fund is also in talks with SoftBank Group Corp's SFTBY Vision Fund portfolio companies to bring their presence in the kingdom.

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Photo: courtesy of Lucid Motors.