Saudi Arabia invests in Tesla rival
 

Now that women are allowed to drive their kids to school

Saudi Arabia has agreed to invest more than $1 billion in Tesla rival Lucid which wants to build a new high performance electric car.

Lucid said the investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund announced Monday would allow it to finish engineering on its first car, the Lucid Air, as well as build a factory in Casa Grande, Arizona, and begin to sell the car by 2020.

This is bad news for Tesla which takes a huge amount of cash from Saudi Arabia. Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed that the Saudis had taken nearly a five percent stake in his electric car company. Musk said that the Saudis had been urging him for almost two years to take Tesla private, offering to provide funds necessary to do so.

Saudi Arabia is investing in electric vehicles to diversify away from its oil dependence.

Lucid's Chief Technology Officer, Peter Rawlinson, was formerly a vice president and chief vehicle engineer at Tesla. He helped design the Model S, the company's breakthrough car. He left Tesla in 2012.

Rawlinson said the Lucid Air would have luxury features that the Model S lacks. He said it would have more interior space and back seats that recline to 55 degrees.

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