For a while now, Saudi Arabia has been seeking to pivot away from fossil fuels as their main source of revenue. Even so, I did not see this coming. Ceer is a new Saudi Arabian auto manufacturer, the country's first. And they're going to produce vehicles that don't even run on the petroleum the company is known for producing.
Their inaugural model is the Exobot, an EV that will come in both sedan and SUV flavors. Giorgetto Giugiaro would've loved these wedges:
These are high-performance (850 horsepower) vehicles with gigantic windshields, another thing I wouldn't have expected from a country with punishing sunlight. The vehicles' air conditioning units are said to be particularly robust, having been designed specifically for the Saudi Arabian climate; the company says they can get the cabin temperature down from 149°F to 90°F (65°C to 32°C) in 10 minutes. (How crazy is it that 90°F is the target.) The idea is that you'd start the air conditioning via app, before you get into the scorching car.
Don't call those "gullwing" doors; Ceer calls them Shahin Wings. (Shahin is Arabic for "falcon.")
The vehicle's ranges are respectable, with the sedan providing up to 670 km (416 miles) and the SUV up to 560 km (348 miles).
The dashboards are freaking curved 48" screens that run the full width of the cabin.
The company has not announced prices, but says the vehicles are going into production in January. Their initial target market will be the Gulf states, with international markets to be decided on later.