Lucid has secured an operating permit from the Saudi Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority (ECZA) for its Saudi Arabian factory. At the same time Lucid has delayed the release of the Air Pure Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD), the base model variant that was supposed to debut in September.
In Saudi Arabia, Lucid’s Advanced Manufacturing Plant-2 (AMP-2) is located within the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). Construction on the facility started last year and it is expected to produce around 150,000 vehicles per year once fully operational. However it won’t actually be building cars at first. Instead Lucid will be sending partially assembled vehicles from AMP-1 facility in Arizona to Saudi Arabia, where the cars will be fully assembled.
As we have previously reported, AMP-2 is expected to start operations this month, with the first deliveries of Saudi-built cars taking place before the end of year.
Lucid has received a license to operate its manufacturing plant, AMP-2, in Saudi Arabia.
AMP-2 will not initially build cars from the ground up. Instead Lucid will send partially assembled vehicles from AMP-1 in Arizona to Saudi Arabia, where the cars will be fully assembled. pic.twitter.com/nZfDaJsDJQ
— Drive Tesla 🇨🇦 (@DriveTeslaca) September 21, 2023
While Lucid is seeing progress in Saudi Arabia, the luxury EV automaker looks to have shelved plans to release the Air Pure Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) variant. Reservation holders for this base model variant were told earlier this year that deliveries would start before the end of Q3. Now that timeline has been delayed by at least another month, as noted by autoevolution, which says the Air Pure RWD will be released in October.
The Air Pure RWD is also no longer available to configure on Lucid’s website. In the US the option is greyed out alongside a statement saying it will be “available October 2023.” In Canada it is also greyed out, but it looks like we will have to wait even longer as it says the RWD will be available “later.”
No final pricing or specs for the Pure RWD have been announced, but since it sits below the AWD variant, it will be less than its starting price of US$82,400 or C$109,900.
