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The battery-powered market offers a more level playing field than combustion, said one Saudi official, and would pit the kingdom against other big electric vehicle producers such as China, Germany and the U.S. But still, electric vehicle manufacturing is planned as an important pillar of the kingdom’s diversification drive, which is being overseen by the sovereign wealth fund, the US$600 billion Public Investment Fund .
“Transportation accounts for about 15 per cent of the Saudi import bill and is the single largest consumer of foreign currency. There is a huge incentive to substitute those imports with domestically produced cars.”Article content “By the end of this year, the industry is hoping they will build enough cars, but unfortunately at that point people may not have enough money to buy those cars.”