Morocco Aims to Become Global Leader in Electric Vehicle Battery Production

Morocco wants to produce and export electric batteries, with the help of Chinese giants in the sector. In March 2024, the Chinese group BTR New Material Group announced an investment of 3 billion dirhams to build a cathode production plant, essential components for batteries. This unit should produce 50,000 tons per year and generate more than 2,500 direct jobs.

In Kénitra, the Sino-European group Gotion High-Tech and the CNGR-Al Mada alliance have launched the construction of a giant electric battery factory. At a cost of 14 billion dirhams, this factory should produce lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries and create 17,000 direct and indirect jobs. This ambitious project aims to combine electromobility and energy storage solutions.

According to various studies, the electric battery sector is a promising sector in Africa. The market could bring in $10 to $15 billion a year to the continent. With its quality natural resources, such as cobalt and phosphate, its dynamic automotive sector, its skilled workforce and its free trade agreements with Europe and the United States, Morocco has all the assets to take advantage of this opportunity.

"We will be the only country in the Euro-African region capable of producing an electric vehicle, from the mine to the car," Ryad Mezzour, the Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade, recently said, lifting a corner of the veil on the kingdom’s great ambitions and its vision for the automotive sector by 2030.