Morocco Launches Africa’s First Automotive Test Center, Boosting Industry Growth

These two Franco-German companies are specialized in specific fields, reports La Map. The French company UTA CERAM with 580 employees and 82 million euros in turnover in 2019 is specialized in development and validation testing in environment, homologation, regulation, training, consulting, auditing and certification, technical inspection, standardization and events.

As for the German company, it has 6,700 employees, including 750 in France. It is involved in the development of vehicles and the powertrain as well as the testing of innovative vehicle concepts up to their mass production. This future center in Oued Zem (Khouribga province) will be located in the center of Morocco with many services divided into several activities. For Laurent Benoît, president of UTAC CERAM, the construction of this new center is integrated into the group’s development and growth strategy, to take into account the demands of its clients.

According to him, the group decided to settle in Morocco because of the many advantages, including favorable weather conditions that allow for optimal testing and favorable local wage costs. These advantages "allow UTAC CERAM to benefit from better competitiveness on certain types of services and thus to complement its offer," says the president of UTAC CERAM. The group also announces that it will proceed to recruit about a hundred employees within five years, who will benefit from a dedicated training program.

Among other services, we note endurance and full reliability testing on benches/tracks/roads, vehicle dynamic development and testing, coast down testing (4 km track, unique in Europe and Africa), test benches for the development of powertrain (electric, hybrid or conventional vehicles), 4 × 4 roller benches (-20°C) for calibration and homologation, acoustic development and testing, pedestrian impact development and testing, RDE (Real Driving Emissions) driving, automated and connected vehicle fleet testing as well as driving training, and event services.