Invest1 publisher2 min readPublished
Saudi Arabia's CEER unveils two EVs with 82% of their content imported
Saudi Arabia's newest carmaker has a plant on the kingdom's west coast and a design brief from the Crown Prince, and PIF wants the cluster around it to lift non-oil exports. Its Saudi supplier base is scheduled to arrive by 2034.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- CEER unveiled two luxury electric Exobots, a sedan and an SUV, which go on sale early next year, and five models at lower price points are planned by 2030.
- Production will begin in early 2027 and the first customer deliveries are expected in March, chief executive Jim DeLuca told Semafor at the launch event.
- The cars will be built at a new plant at King Abdullah Economic City, north of Jeddah on the kingdom's west coast, capable of producing 240,000 vehicles.
- The Exobot was supposed to go on sale in November, and DeLuca said supply chain disruptions from the Iran war caused the delay, with no further impact expected.
- CEER will sell in Saudi Arabia first and expand into other parts of the Gulf in 2028, where Chinese EV brands have been rapidly gaining market share.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint Until the new supplier deals land, most of the value in each car leaving the plant was bought abroad, so the cluster's contribution to non-oil exports trails its output for years.
- cost Somebody funds the gap between luxury volumes and plant capacity, and PIF has already paid that bill once at Lucid.
- decision A seven-model programme funded in 2023 now sits inside a fund cutting budgets elsewhere and pushing projects to raise outside money, so the next review is a decision about CEER's exemption.
- capability Five foreign suppliers already producing in the kingdom lower the entry cost for the next carmaker weighing Saudi assembly, whether or not PIF owns it.
Local content in a CEER car runs at around 18%, and Public Investment Fund is working on new supplier deals meant to take that to 45% by 2034 [20]. So 82% of the content is imported at launch, and if the target lands, 55% is still imported in 2034 [1][2]. Twenty-seven points of localisation over eight years is a bit over three points a year [3].
CEER did not reveal prices, and its executives say the first models target high-end buyers [3]. The top trims make 1,111 horsepower, go 670 km and reach 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds [21]. Semafor reported that pricing seems likely to come in near Lucid's luxury EVs, given the high-tech features and a complex design that may prove hard to build in volume [22]. Lucid has missed delivery targets, loses more than $100,000 per car and has required several cash injections since PIF invested [23]. Filling the plant once at that loss per car would cost $24 billion [4].
Jim DeLuca, CEER's chief executive, said the funding from PIF has not changed. "We are fully funded," he said, declining to comment on how much has been invested so far or when the company expects to become profitable [17]. "This plan to launch seven products between now and 2030 was developed and funded in 2023," he said [18]. The two Exobots plus the five cheaper models planned by 2030 make up that seven [4][6]. CEER is private, and Semafor noted that keeps its finances out of public scrutiny [24].
The supplier base is the strongest part of the case. PIF invested in Lucid in 2018 and got the US maker to build the first auto plant in the kingdom, which anchored a cluster that now includes Hyundai and suppliers Pirelli of Italy, Lear of the US, Korea's Shin Young, Germany's Benteler and China's Fangxin [12]. CEER itself is PIF in partnership with Foxconn [11]. Jaguar Land Rover abandoned plans for a Saudi factory more than a decade ago, and Toyota walked away from talks in 2019 [10].
On this evidence the export half of the story depends on suppliers arriving faster than the 2034 schedule [20]. Two things would argue against that reading: an export contract outside the Gulf with volumes attached, or localisation hitting 45% years early. DeLuca was direct about the record he is working against. "Saudi Arabia has wanted a car industry for a long time, there have been multiple attempts, and it has never come to fruition," he said [8]. "Our mission is to ignite that industry," he said [9].
What to watch
- Whether Stellantis turns its feasibility study into an actual Saudi plant, and on whose capital.
- Any CEER sales commitment outside the Gulf, with volumes attached, before the 2028 regional rollout.
- Whether CEER publishes Exobot prices before deliveries begin in March.