The State Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia plans to become the main shareholder and investor of Velocity, a company which develops and manufactures electric cars.
Velocity’s main partners are Apple gadget assembly firm Foxconn and the BMW concern. The new concern will use the Bavarian electrical platform under a license: this will allow Velocity not to spend money on the development, and BMW – to partially compensate for its expenses for the creation of architecture (previously, in a similar way, BMW allowed the Vietnamese company VinFast to use its previous developments).
In this case, the “filling” of the future Arab electric vehicles will be their own. Foxconn, known as one of the largest manufacturers of Apple gadgets, will become a member of the enterprise as a supplier of software, onboard electronics, and other related equipment and a minority shareholder.
At the same time, Foxconn also has its plans to produce electric vehicles: the company has already demonstrated the first conceptual project called Model E.
Saudi Arabia is planning significant investments in the organization of local production of electric vehicles to diversify the national economy, now “tied” mainly to resources.
Authorities are in talks with Lucid Motors to build a production site, intend to set up a battery manufacturing facility, and, as Bloomberg reported, has launched a large-scale study to examine the prospects for this market sector.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to implement an unusual infrastructure project – a gigapolis called The Line, the transport system of which will be deprived of the usual cars.
Be the first to comment