Saudi Arabia pushes thru with plans to build first locally-made vehicle

Saudi Arabia pushes thru with plans to build first locally-made vehicle

Saudi Arabia is no stranger to maddeningly-rich people owning some of the most exotic cars in the world. But now, the Kingdom is venturing into something that it hasn’t done before: auto manufacturing.

King Abdullah officially unveiled the production version of the Gazal 1, the one-time special project by students at King Saud University that has been turned into the country’s very first production vehicle.

Designed using a Mercedes-Benz G-Class as its basis, the Gazal 1 was originally shown at the Geneva Motor Show as nothing more than just a concept. Apparently, it was closer to seeing the production line and being a full-scale vehicle than a lot of us initially thought. And given the fact that the people behind this are just students, we have to give these fellas mad props for the unique design.

Saudi Arabia’s Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari remarked that the country, through the support of its King Abdullah, is fast becoming a hotspot for bright young minds.“What is achieved today is a clear proof of the ability of Saudi youth to make innovations and inventions … if they are provided with adequate facilities and given opportunities,” he said.

There’s no word yet as to what’s going to be under the hood of the production-version of the Gazal 1, but we do know that there are plans to produce 20,000 of these desert deers per year, meaning that we’re probably going to see a whole lot of the Gazal 1 - and possibly future models - down the road.