Saudi Arabia Plans To Compete With Tesla
A Saudi EV startup backed by one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds just unveiled its first vehicles, setting up a collision course with Tesla and Chinese manufacturers that could reshape the global electric vehicle race.
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A new EV company in Saudi Arabia has just launched its first EVs. Ceer has just released two models. It plans to launch five more by 2030. The company also has the backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, one of the world’s largest such funds.
Ceer CEO Jim DeLuca says the company will hedge its bets. He told Reuters, “Some of its models will be hybrids and gas-powered cars.”
The road to global EV success runs two gauntlets. One is Chinese manufacturers, which serve their home country, the world’s largest EV market. The other is Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) global success. Its sales have faltered recently, but it is still the world’s premier EV brand. And, based on recent sales numbers, it is in the midst of a turnaround.
Teslas are also available in almost every major nation. Chinese EVs are blocked from the US by extremely high tariffs.
Ceer can’t succeed without taking share from Tesla and the Chinese, even if global EV sales explode upward. And the Public Investment Fund will need to be in for the long haul and invest billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars to do so.
Tesla is already contending with the success of Chinese rivals. It has faced competition from smaller companies, including Rivian (NASDAQ: RVIN) and Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID).
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