Saudi Arabia: CEER signs 16 commercial localisation agreements worth SAR 3.7bn for domestic EV manufacturing

Mechanism

CEER — the Public Investment Fund and Foxconn joint venture building Saudi Arabia's first domestic EV brand — signed 16 commercial agreements exceeding SAR 3.7 billion (~USD 986 million) with suppliers at the PIF Private Sector Forum on 9 February 2026, one year after signing SAR 5.5 billion in agreements at the same venue. Named counterparties span both Saudi firms (Abdul Latif Jameel, Zamil Trade & Services, Zamil Plastics, NSSPC, Mino, HCMF, APICO Balubaid Group) and foreign engineering/component suppliers (Sika, XYG, FEV, AVL, KK Nag, MK Tron, FPI), covering fluids, polymer compounds, glazing, HVAC, structural adhesives and body-shop infrastructure.

CEER states the programme targets sourcing 45% of vehicle materials and components from Saudi companies by 2034, projecting a SAR 30 billion GDP contribution, a SAR 79 billion trade-balance improvement, and roughly 30,000 direct and indirect jobs by that date. Severity is set at 2 (quant, anchored on the disclosed 45%-by-2034 localisation target and the SAR 3.7bn agreement value) — a moderate, incremental step in a multi-year sectoral localisation programme rather than a single flagship investment, consistent with the pattern set by earlier PIF-vehicle deals (e.g. Alat/TK Elevator, 2025-08-05-saudi-arabia-alat-tk-elevator-manufacturing-jv).

Downstream implications

• Extends Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 industrial-localisation playbook — captive PIF-funded

domestic demand used to induce both local and foreign suppliers to build components capacity in-Kingdom — into the automotive/EV supply chain specifically.

• Named foreign suppliers (Sika, XYG, FEV, AVL, KK Nag) mark early entrants into Saudi

automotive-component localisation; worth tracking whether these MoUs convert into physical manufacturing facilities, as the parallel Alat/TK Elevator JV did within ~10 months.

• Second consecutive year of PIF Private Sector Forum localisation-agreement announcements from

CEER (SAR 5.5bn in 2025, SAR 3.7bn in 2026) — a recurring annual disclosure venue worth watching for the pace of scale-up toward the 2034 45% target.

Open questions

• No public disclosure of individual per-supplier deal values within the SAR 3.7bn aggregate.
• Unclear what share of the 45%-by-2034 localisation target is currently met versus these MoUs

representing incremental progress toward it.