by Nurat Uthman
The Moroccan government is in talks to attract more electric battery makers as it tries to adapt its growing auto sector to growing demand for electric vehicles, Industry and Trade Minister Ryad Mezzour said.
The automotive sector surpasses Morocco’s industrial exports, with $14 billion in 2023, up 27%.
Morocco is home to manufacturing plants from Stellantis and Renault, with a combined annual production capacity of 700,000 cars, as well as a group of local suppliers.
Last week, the Moroccan government gave the green light to Chinese electric battery maker BTR New Material Group to build a factory near Tangier to produce cathodes for key components.
“This is the first memorandum of understanding that we have turned into an investment agreement,” Mezzour said in an interview with Reuters.
Another Chinese manufacturer, CNGR Advanced Material, is expected to build a cathode factory in Jorf Lasfar, 100 kilometers south of Casablanca, where the government has allocated 283 hectares for electric battery industries.
“BTR and CNGR or other factories will be able to supply gigafactories in Morocco and abroad,” he said.
Last year, the Moroccan government and China’s Gotion agreed to look into setting up an electric vehicle battery factory in the kingdom with up to $6.3 billion in investment.
The Gotion project is moving forward with footprint and location discussions, Mezzour said.
“This will be a potential gigafactory,” he said, referring to large-scale battery manufacturing plants.
Negotiations are also underway with five other manufacturers to set up similar plants, he said without elaborating.
While the investment in batteries is “one of the ways to prepare the automotive sector for the requirements of electric mobility”, the minister said the next steps would be the car platform and the electric motor.
By 2030, electric vehicles made in Morocco are planned to account for up to 60 percent of exported cars, ahead of the EU’s 2035 ban on fossil fuel cars, he said.
Stellantis has a production capacity of 50,000 supermini electric cars at its factory in Kenitra.
Renault plans to start production of a hybrid version of the seven-seater Dacia Jogger at the Tangier plant in the second half of this year, at a capacity of 120,000 cars annually.
“We are incrementally changing our value chain and growing it to be able to deliver to all our markets with a highly competitive and integrated value chain,” Mezzour said.
