Is Morocco the new El Dorado for electric car batteries?

Morocco aims to become the next hub for the electric battery. On February 9, the day after the fifth edition of LeaderSHE Talks in Fez, there was a discreet meeting between Abdellatif Miraoui, Moroccan Minister of Higher Education and the renowned Moroccan researcher and inventor Rachid Yazami, reveals the media Africa Intelligence in one of its confidential letters. On the menu: discussions on the financing of the battery research center within the Private University of Fez (UPF). The expertise of this world-renowned Moroccan physicist and electrochemist will be of great use to Morocco in achieving its objectives. Rachid Yazami is now a professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Previously, he was a research director at the CNRS, then a researcher affiliated with the prestigious California Institute of Technology, where he works closely with NASA.

"As part of its decarbonization strategy for the transport sector, Morocco plans to create a truly competitive electric vehicle industry. Proximity to Europe and the entry into force of the future carbon tax in early 2026 are pushing investors to turn to other markets like Morocco. A battery made in India or China, for example, will cost more to enter the European market than a battery made just 10 km from the borders," confides to Challenge Samir Rachidi, president of Iresen. He will add: "In the light of the AfCFTA, Morocco could also export these electric vehicles to the African market, which would strengthen the trade balance and the economic competitiveness of our country."

Studies carried out in 2022 also show that Morocco has the potential to become the next hub for the electric battery. According to the conclusions of a study by the famous Fitch Solutions firm, "Morocco will become the regional manufacturing center for electric vehicles in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as it is rapidly developing a circular economy (end-to-end electric vehicle production) in its national electric vehicle supply chain. And the growth of the Moroccan cobalt sector will attract the interest of mining and automotive companies in the short term (2022-2026), which will be an advantage for the development of the local electric vehicle supply chain in Morocco (manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles)."

"In 2018, global lithium-ion battery production was 160 GWh, of which 106 GWh for the automotive sector. This production is expected to represent 500 GWh in 2025 and 1200 GWh in 2030, of which 1,020 GWh for the automotive sector. Just on electric vehicles, the global market is estimated at 45 billion euros in 2027, of which 20 to 30% will be captured by Europe. As the 10th largest cobalt producer in the world, Morocco has significant assets to develop the battery production industry," estimates the CESE in one of the studies on green growth published in 2022. Furthermore, the Moroccan government and the Chinese battery manufacturer, Gotion High Tech, plan to invest $6.3 billion to create an electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in the kingdom.

To read: Morocco Poised for Major Battery Industry Boost as Lithium-Ion Pioneer Plans Factories

In the eyes of Adil Benani, president of Aivam, Morocco can be a real manufacturing platform for charging stations. To support his words: he explains: "The need for charging station manufacturing will be exponential and you know that today electric vehicle sales are on an upward sales trend, we should in Europe by 2025 exceed the 20 million mark, which represents 20% of EVs in the world. [...] As demand is so strong, there would be a real opportunity to create this industrial system."