EV Autos: $5.6 billion deal signed between Saudi Arabia and China’s Human Horizons
A two-day business conference between China and the Arab world concluded in Riyadh with investment deals worth $10 billion, more than half of which in a partnership signed by Chinese electric car maker Human Horizons and by Saudi Arabia's investment ministry as reported by SCMP .
The joint venture will conduct “ research, development, production and sales of automobiles ” under a $5.6 billion deal.
The conference, which followed Chinese President Xi Jinping's high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia last December, saw deals signed by Chinese companies in sectors such as technology, renewable energy, agriculture, real estate, metals, tourism and healthcare. The conference, which was hosted by Riyadh for the first time, is now in its tenth year. This year's edition saw the participation of over 3,500 people, with a great success.
“Chinese companies have a better chance to build infrastructure, assemble electric vehicles, manage new energy projects and develop technology businesses in Saudi Arabia, now that the Middle Eastern country has embarked on its Vision 2030 strategy,” said Yan Jinglan, professor of studies abroad at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. “ Investments and manufacturing in the Kingdom will benefit some Chinese companies, especially manufacturers facing fierce competition at home .”
The Saudi Vision 2030 strategy is a development plan aimed at reducing the country's dependence on oil and transforming its economy.
China has pledged to support Saudi Arabia's vision of diversifying its economy, despite oil dominating the current economic ties between the two countries. Beijing's growing interest in the region was underlined by Xi's visit in December, when he attended the China-Arab Countries summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council summit.
His co-hosting of the China-Arab Summit and his first visit to the region since 2016 were widely seen as attempts to boost Beijing's influence in a region that, like China, has an increasingly frayed relationship with the United States. After all, trade with China is skyrocketing, while that with Washington is languishing. So there are excellent opportunities to talk and find agreements. The vast majority of agreements signed during the summit concern projects in Saudi Arabia or by Saudi companies and government entities.
The deal by Shanghai-based Human Horizons comes amid a push from Riyadh, which has sought to grow in the green energy and technology sectors, including developing a domestic vehicle manufacturing industry electricity, as part of its Saudi Vision 2030 plan. There is no doubt about China's economic incursions into the Middle East, but the policy is "more complex".
The automaker develops self-driving technologies and produces electric vehicles under the high-end brand HiPhi, which is also aiming to enter the European market this year. These are very sophisticated cars with unique solutions, as you can immediately admire when you open the doors:
“Premium or luxury EV models could be suitable for the Saudi market,” said David Zhang, a visiting professor at Huanghe Science and Technology College. “Human Horizons is the right pioneer to test the market with its expensive models before more Chinese EVs enter Saudi Arabia.”
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The article Auto EV: 5.6 billion dollar agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and the Chinese Human Horizons comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/auto-ev-firmato-accordo-da-56-miliardi-di-dollari-fra-arabia-saudita-e-la-cinese-human-horizons/ on Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:30:43 +0000.