New Saudi Arabian EV Brand Shines Light on the Kingdom's Renewable Energy Policies

­The nation with the second-largest stash of oil reserves is going green – Saudi Arabia announced its very own electric car brand.

Given their rep as one of the world’s fossil fuel juggernauts, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is probably the last country anyone would associate with EVs. With a proven stockpile of 268 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia hosts 1/5 of the world’s oil reserves and the second-most in the world, behind only Venezuela with 297 barrels.

Because of this enormous stockpile, and their internal politics, the Saudi Kingdom has become a political hot potato, especially in the U.S. And even though the U.S. only imports 7% of its oil from there – the vast majority comes from Canada – Saudi Arabia has personified anti-renewable energy policies and the finite nature of fossil fuels.

So this comes as a shock.

The electric car brand Ceer is a joint venture between the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF (Public Investment Fund) and the infamous Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn. Ceer will also license parts from BMWs, with the vehicles manufactured in Saudi Arabia and sold in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as early as 2025.

PIF and Foxconn noted that their envisioned EVs “will lead the way in infotainment, connectivity and autonomous driving,” and they expect to attract $150 in U.S. investment dollars and create 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.

All of this is shocking – for the aforementioned reasons – but perhaps it shouldn’t be.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) already has a renewable energy policy in place known as Vision 2030, which aims to “reduce KSA’s dependance on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors, health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism.”

Under this framework, KSA is striving to produce 58.7 GW of renewable energy by 2030 – hence the name – with 40 GW of solar photovoltaic, 16 GW of wind, and 2.7 GW of concentrated solar power.

Whether that all comes to pass is another issue – “government” and “delay” are practically synonyms – but Ceer is hardly Saudi Arabia’s first green venture.

According to Foxconn, “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.”