RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: As part of the country's efforts to build new industries and reduce its dependence upon oil, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund said this week that it will manufacture electric vehicles locally, under a joint venture with Apple supplier Foxconn.

In a statement, the fund said that the EV brand, called Ceer, "is the first Saudi automotive brand to produce EVs in Saudi Arabia, and will design, manufacture and sell a range of vehicles for consumers in the country and the Middle East and North Africa region, including sedans and sports utility vehicles."

The Saudi wealth fund said Ceer's cars would be available in 2025, adding that it aims to attract more than $150 million in foreign direct investment, create up to 30,000 jobs, and will contribute some $8 billion to Saudi's GDP by 2034.

The joint venture "will license component technology from BMW for use in the vehicle development process," it said in a statement.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs the fund and has made it his main vehicle for diversifying the Saudi economy and weaning the country from oil revenues.

Lucid Group Inc, which is more than 60 percent owned by the Saudi fund, is building an electric vehicle assembly plant in Jeddah, with an eventual capacity to manufacture 150,000 vehicles per year.

According to the fund's statement, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said, "We will leverage Foxconn's technological expertise to support Peers vision of creating a range of iconic electric vehicles that are built around the themes of connectivity, infotainment and autonomy."

"We want to make electric vehicles mainstream, and that is what Ceer is going to achieve in Saudi Arabia and the wider region," he added.

In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia and Foxconn were in talks to jointly build a $9 billion facility that could manufacture microchips, EV components and other electronics, as part of a project to build a futuristic $500 billion city in the desert.