Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz on Thursday launched Ceer, the kingdom’s first automotive brand to design and manufacture electric vehicles in the country.
The company, a joint venture between the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. — also known as Foxconn — will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles including sedans and sports utility vehicles to consumers in the MENA region.
Vehicles are scheduled to be available in 2025.
Ceer hopes to attract over $150 million of foreign direct investment, and create up to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. The company is projected to directly contribute $8 billion to Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2034.
The company will licence component technology from BMW for use in the vehicle development process. The electrical architecture of the vehicles will be developed by Foxconn.
“Saudi Arabia is not just building a new automotive brand, we are igniting a new industry and an ecosystem that attracts international and local investments, creates job opportunities for local talent, enables the private sector, and contributes to increasing Saudi Arabia’s GDP over the next decade, as part of PIF’s strategy to drive the economic growth in line with Vision 2030,” Mohammed bin Salman said.
Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group, Young Liu, said: “Foxconn is excited about our partnership with PIF to create a new automotive company that will focus on designing and manufacturing electric vehicles in and for Saudi Arabia. We will leverage Foxconn’s technological expertise to support Ceer’s vision of creating a range of iconic electric vehicles that are built around the themes of connectivity, infotainment and autonomy. We want to make electric vehicles mainstream, and that is what Ceer is going to achieve in Saudi Arabia and the wider region.”
