Hyundai to build future cars in Saudi Arabia
Close
Hyundai has started construction work on a new factory in Saudi Arabia that is set to supply the state with some 50,000 cars annually.
It is based in the King Salman Automotive Cluster, a new automotive industry hub in the King Abdullah Economic City near Jeddah. As well as Hyundai, it currently hosts Lucid Motors (for whom the Saudi government is a key financial backer) and Saudi brand Ceer.
It will produce both internal-combustion-engine and battery-electric vehicles according to local demand, and will build its first vehicle by October 2026.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Top Gear
30 minutes ago
- Top Gear
Polestar 3 - long-term review 2025
Did you know that there was a full-blooded racing circuit in Gothenburg, in an area of the city's docklands called Frihamnspiren? Thed Björk won a round of the Swedish Touring Car Championship there when the track first opened, back in 2008. A few years after that I hammered a Volvo S60 'Polestar Engineered' round the place, and very good it was too. That was when Polestar was the Volvo equivalent of AMG or M. The Scandinavians aren't exclusively about hygge and cosy-knit well-being. Now, of course, Polestar is a well-established independent entity, though part of the Geely mega-corps that also owns Lotus, Volvo and various other brands including Zeekr and Lynk & Co. It encountered some financial and HR headwinds last year, including a precipitous share price plunge and the replacement of original CEO Thomas Ingenlath. The previously pristeen optics took a hit. Advertisement - Page continues below New boss Michael Lohscheller is a numbers dude, and he's seeking sales uplift. Polestar sold 44,851 cars last year, a 15 per cent decline compared to 2023, but retail sales are up by 76 per cent in Q1 of this year, bolstered by the arrival of the 3 and 4. Polestar, as per the original vision, is an electric premium brand which puts performance and design at its core. My top two attributes in any car. Like the BMW iX and the misunderstood Jaguar I-Pace, the 3 breaks the conventions associated with the large SUV format, more successfully than either of those. Ingenlath and Max Missoni – Polestar's former design boss, now ensconced in a senior position at BMW – are two of the industry's top creative talents and the 3 is proof of their unerring eye for form, stance and detailing. The chunky nose contains an S-duct for aero purposes, the roofline is as low as any SUV-ish vehicle dares go, and the surfaces are clean without being clinical. The interior is similarly stark but we'll get into that in more detail in a later report. TG's car is well-appointed to say the least. It's the Long Range Dual Motor with the Performance Pack, so it's good for 510bhp and a resounding 671lb ft. These would have been top tier supercar numbers not so long ago, and are still punchy enough to get your attention. The extra grunt hurts the range a bit, reducing it to 348 miles (WLTP) from 390. Real world, we're looking at around 300, especially as the weather warms up. Then there are the options. The interior is finished in Nappa leather, with black ash deco on the dash. This is responsibly sourced, meets the 'five freedoms' test of animal welfare, and costs £5,000. I could live without the £2,300 Pilot Pack that adds various bits of ADAS. But the Plus Pack is a no-brainer for a music obsessed audiophile like me, given that it brings with it the Bowers & Wilkins upgrade. This is a 1,610 watt, 25 speaker powerhouse, with front headrest speakers, Dolby Atmos 3D surround sound, and soon an OTA update that'll add the spectacular Abbey Road sound stage. More on that soon. Advertisement - Page continues below The Plus Pack also includes active noise cancellation, acoustic glass and heated seats. Metallic paint, HD LED headlights and 22in polished black alloys round the options tally to £12,300.
Top Gear
30 minutes ago
- Top Gear
An E30 BMW resto powered by a V10? That's Bugatti boss Rimac's 'dream' project
Mate Rimac is a man on a mission. He talks V10 Bimmers and Bugatti's next steps It's a cold day at Paul Ricard. Wrapped in a bomber jacket Mate Rimac is standing on the pitwall, pointing his phone at the Bolide as it comes ripping past at full noise. He grins and looks over, 'pretty cool, huh?' Rimac could have pulled the plug on the Bolide project when he took control of Bugatti three and a half years ago. But he was never going to, was he? He's a car guy. He's on the pitwall with his phone, filming for posterity because his wife is out there in the passenger seat. Rimac, by the way, has yet to drive a Bolide. Given his reputation, his love of driving and drifting, the fact that his dream one day is to do 'a proper, proper E30 restomod, with a V10. Not just the technical stuff, but also design. I don't know when I will get round to that – it might be my retirement project', why hasn't he got into the Bolide yet? Photography: Mark Riccioni 'I'm always super detailed about testing and driving cars, about every detail, and when I drive our cars I come back with a long list of things I want improved or changed. But with this car it's just so far outside my level of competence. It's a racecar, a track car and I'm a road car user. I can't come anywhere near what this car can do.' That's fair enough, it's not like he's short of work elsewhere. He now has three projects, of which Bugatti is only half of one strand – that's the Bugatti-Rimac car division. Then there's Rimac Technology providing solutions to other car companies, and last year he launched Verne, a robotaxi company. 'We showed it in June last year, a few months before Tesla showed theirs – and just three weeks after we introduced the Tourbillon. 'Last June,' he admits, 'almost killed me.' Two weeks ago he was at Nardò driving the Chiron-replacing Tourbillon. He pulls out his phone and shows me a video clip, 'Look how fast it revs, that noise. I was blown away by how good the car is. I'm so, so proud of it. You are in this car, you have this steering wheel with a fixed hub, you have analogue instruments, you have the performance of 800 electric horsepower with 1,000 combustion horsepower. There is nothing like it. 'And you don't need the engine to accelerate fast. That's the advantage. In the Tourbillon if you're lazy and don't want to shift down, or just wanna go ahead, there's so much electric power that you don't have to. Like why else carry around all that weight and complexity?' He has a small dig at other hybrid supercars. 'I have driven them all and I don't get it really. Why would you have a hybrid powertrain with a turbo engine? Like, a turbo engine is a compromise on its own, right? By going from turbo to naturally aspirated we lost 600bhp. I knew we could more than make up for it with the electric powertrain. So the electric powertrain enabled the cool combustion engine. In the Tourbillon, you have 70km of all electric range while others in electric mode are super limited.' Development is progressing well. In total Bugatti is building 35 prototypes before the first customer cars. 'We are basically done with the development and now we do the homologation and testing. The goal is to be lighter than Chiron. It'll be the first hybrid that's lighter than its combustion only variant. We have a big battery – 25kWh – we have three electric motors and we are lighter. Just one example, the suspension is 45 per cent lighter compared with the Chiron because of 3D printing.' There is, by the way, some carry over from Chiron to Tourbillon. 'We have decided to take over one part, which is the switch for the interior lights.' First Tourbillon deliveries are scheduled for 2026, built at Molsheim in a new building alongside the existing factory, known as the Atelier. Hard though it is to believe, Molsheim will have its busiest year ever in 2025, building the remaining Bolides (14 have been delivered so far), plus the 99 Mistrals. Then 250 Tourbillon coupes will be next, and after that a roadster? 'You can assume,' Mate comments with a smile, 'but also there are many things you can do with this hybrid powertrain. You can make a version without hybrid, or with it minimised, or without the [driven] front axle, whatever.' Would he do a non-hybrid Tourbillon? 'Uh, well, it's pretty difficult because the starter is the hybrid motor. So you don't have belt drive. You don't have an alternator, you don't have an air conditioning compressor, but you could do a very reduced system.' Beyond that Rimac won't be drawn on future product. But it's widely rumoured he wants Bugatti to have a second model line. That's nothing new. When we interviewed previous boss Stephan Winkelmann back in 2019, he said the same. But with Rimac at the helm, how about a four door with the V16 in the front? Something that could recreate the appeal of the iconic Royale from 1927, which celebrates its centenary two years from now. And was powered by a straight eight... which is basically half a V16. As yet, no comment. It's noisy in the pit garages, with the Bolide thundering in and out and the rattle of wheel guns, so we walk over to the foyer where Bugatti has positioned a Type 35. Does it give him a sense of legacy when he sees cars like this? 'It's really important. It makes me think about some of the small things, like what Ettore said, 'if it's comparable it's no longer a Bugatti', or when Piëch described the Veyron by saying 'it's a car to do over 400kph and the same day go with your wife to the opera'. It's a little bit of craziness that I have, when you look at where I came from to where I am now "It's just a few words, but there's so much depth and meaning [to those phrases]. We repeat that often to the engineers, telling them this car will still be driving around in a hundred years. How do you make sure this seal will last 50–60 years, how do we make sure these electronics can be serviced in 50, 60 years? 'I won't say much because we haven't decided yet, but I think warranties for these kind of cars need to be very different. I'll give an example. So Chiron is now four years carefree warranty with service included and that's pretty good. Why are people not using the Veyron so much? They would use it more if the tyres and wheels weren't so expensive, so we are trying to make a new set of wheels and tyres. "Look at the LaFerrari and P1 and 918, people get a bad battery and it costs hundreds of thousands to replace. We want to make sure this is never the case with Tourbillon. A Bugatti has to be super reliable and worry free, because that also ensures resale value.' I ask Rimac about future developments – where does he reckon we are with solid state batteries for instance? 'I feel like a fossil in this industry although I'm just 37. But I've been making batteries for 16 years and I've been reading about solid state and breakthroughs in the fundamental technology for 16 years, and it always seems like it's just there, but it's not. What has happened is the price [of conventional batteries] has come down 90 per cent – it used to be €1,500 per kWh, now it's like €100 per kWh.' Elon Musk then. Hero or villain? 'So for me, before this whole thing with the elections and all that stuff, he was the most exciting person in the world. I mean, sending reusable rockets into space, preparing to launch rockets to Mars, send people to Mars. I know how the [auto] industry works and how much Tesla has driven the change in all of these car companies. And I know that the only difference between Tesla and all of the other car companies is just Elon, nothing else. He has really changed the world, really had a huge impact.' And is China a threat or an opportunity? 'Europeans have been shipping cars there and producing cars there for decades and shipping, like, containers of money out, so it seems a bit hypocritical now the Chinese want to do the same here. If they can offer a better product at a more competitive price, why wouldn't they? They seem to have good products and the growth trajectory is crazy. Look where they've come in 10, 15 years.'
Top Gear
30 minutes ago
- Top Gear
Buying a cheap, used Mitsubishi Pajero unseen: how bad could it really be?
Ricci's Garage Spoiler: it bad. Let's all play Ricci's Garage Bingo! Skip 3 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he's buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world Welcome everyone to round 57 of Ricci's Garage Bingo, and for those first time players this might be a little different to the bingo you're familiar with. You won't find any Dryrobe garms here nor will you be listening to Jess Glynne on repeat for three hours. Instead, you'll witness a man trying to justify his automotive related horrors, repeating the same mistakes in the hope the end result is slightly different. Plot twist: the end result is always the same. Advertisement - Page continues below If you look at this month's card you'll see Ricci's Garage Bingo is littered with many familiar topics. Top left, we have 'the GT-R needs another engine' followed by 'the M6 refresh is about to bankrupt me'. In the top right, you'll see 'more off road wheels purchased' with the classic 'I've bought a car unseen and it's crap' under it. For the bottom row, we have 'sending money abroad and hoping it's not a scam' joined by 'the 911 has a new warning light'. In the middle, you'll see the red bonus ball that simply reads 'Pajero'. That's because this month's winning card really is a greatest hits of all the above. Not only have I bought another Mitsubishi Pajero, but I bought it completely unseen. You might like This MkI three door Pajero (Shogun) was for sale in the UK, but it was priced very cheaply on the UK MkI Pajero Owners' Club Facebook group. Given how popular these cars are in extra curricular activities like cash machine theft and among those with no fixed postal address, a cheap MkI is the equivalent of wearing a meat bikini and diving into the Amazon river. 'Someone is coming around to look at it this afternoon unfortunately,' the seller told me after I'd asked to buy it. Naturally, this could not go unpunished, so minutes later I'd transferred him the money allowing me to feel smug that I'd snagged a bargain. And then it turned up. Advertisement - Page continues below Its 2.5-litre turbodiesel engine runs, but rather than pistons it's powered by an improv jazz drummer who seems to be constantly falling down a flight of stairs. The paint has been reapplied using a paint roller. Either that, or an Old English sheepdog has bathed in green paint before being allowed to roll over every panel. The term 'prep' may have been lost at this stage too – no masking or sanding was used to protect parts that didn't need paint. Like the headlights. But at least they exist, which is more than can be said for various rubber trim pieces around the windows. Also, the inside now smells so strong even someone with a penchant for Chinese wet markets might consider it a bit of a hazard. And do you know what the worst thing is? I don't care about any of that, because I am once again utterly in love with a horrid excuse of a Pajero. One that somehow still has an MOT certificate, which must have been done via wifi in a previous life. I can't even begin to tell you what the plans are for it – my Pajero Evo has a blown engine and my other MkI needs more welding. What's most annoying is the fact I now need to find another MkI Pajero with a bubble shape roof to replace it. But we'll save that adventure for a future game of Ricci's Garage Bingo. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
