Morocco Emerges as Africa’s Leading Automotive Manufacturing Hub

Morocco continues to consolidate its position as the largest automotive production center in Africa, while preparing for the era of electric vehicles, notes The Financial Times, noting that the kingdom now has more than 250 automotive suppliers, many of which are subsidiaries of foreign companies, employing some 220,000 people. Last year, the Renault group indicated that it was sourcing more than 60% of the parts for its vehicles in Morocco, the majority of which are exported, while committing to increase this rate to 65%, reports the British daily. "Today it is much easier to produce a car in Morocco than it was ten years ago," explains Faouzi Annajah, co-founder of the hydrogen car manufacturer NamX, noting that Morocco not only has a competitive group of automotive suppliers and equipment manufacturers, but it also produces a steady stream of Moroccan engineers, 3,500 of whom - including many women - work in the city of Casablanca alone.

According to the author of the article, the biggest breakthrough in the automotive industry in Morocco was probably in 2012. At that time, Renault began producing cars in its Tangier plant located near the Tanger Med industrial complex and a few kilometers from Spain, with a capacity of 400,000 vehicles. In 2019, Peugeot, which is now part of Stellantis, followed in Renault’s footsteps by opening a plant with an investment of nearly $600 million in Kénitra, with a capacity of 200,000 vehicles. Last November, Stellantis, which manufactures the Peugeot 208 in this plant, announced that it would invest an additional 300 million euros to double production and bring it to 400,000 vehicles. "We have managed to position Kénitra as a leading industrial site for Stellantis," says Samir Cherfan, its Chief Operating Officer for the Middle East and Africa.

The next challenge for the industry will be to adapt quickly enough to changing regulatory conditions, including the EU’s ban