Saudi Arabia and Human Horizons sign a $5.6 billion agreement

Human Horizons, a company behind the HiPhi EV brand, and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment signed a cooperation agreement reportedly worth over $5.6 billion. The deal was signed on the first day of the Arab-China business conference in Riyadh, which showcases Chinese technology, renewable energy, and agriculture, among many other fields.

Saudi Arabia has been pushing hard to diversify away from oil industries, and until now, its relationship with China revolved around energy industries. Human Horizons is focused on electric cars and urban solutions which fall neatly within the interests of Saudi Arabia. China has so far invested $3.5 billion in the country, but this latest investment blows this figure out of the water.

HiPhi as an EV brand is not doing that well in China, the company has consistently failed for its sales to register on the monthly rankings published by the China Passenger Car Association. The company has three passenger vehicles on offer, the HiPhi X launched in 2021 and goes for as much as RMB 800,000 ($112,000) in its four-seat version.

The second model, the electric sedan HiPhi Z, launched last year with a price tag of RMB 630,000 ($88,000) in a four-seat configuration. Finally, this year, the company unveiled HiPhi Y, its most affordable model yet. The starting price was supposed to be around RMB 370,000 ($52,000), but the vehicle hasn’t gone on sale officially yet.

On top of the futuristic passenger cars, HiPhi offers city transport vehicles together with complete smart-city designs. The solutions touted by the company include autonomous vehicles, drone taxis, smart logistics, and roadways. HiPhi City is an idea of an interconnected city with all of its services operated automatically and with zero emissions.

The $5.6 billion deal will involve more than just EV manufacturing, and it is highly likely that all services offered by Human Horizons are of interest to Saudi Arabia. Human Horizons is planning to expand the HiPhi brand beyond China, it wants to offer its electric cars in Europe with the HiPhi Y apparently designed with the European market in mind. Its deal with Saudi Arabia may put those plans on a back burner for a while though.

Via