Morocco has surpassed South Africa as the biggest exporter of passenger cars on the continent with MAD 65.1 billion exports made in the car industry at the end of 2018, hence currently Africa’s first passenger car manufacturer.
The North African country’s Automotive industry has grown exponentially yearly with car sales exceeding 160,000 units in 2021, and creating over 220,000 direct jobs. According to several international experts, Morocco’s auto industry is set to contribute to as much as 24% to the Moroccan GDP by 2022.
Despite the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, the industry has gradually recovered in 2021, selling around 400,000 cars to Europe.
Managing Director of Renault in Morocco, Marc Nassif stated that local suppliers provide the French auto company with automotive components for its vehicles, such as seats and axles and other essential parts. He estimated that local components constitute 60% of the final product and predicts the number to rise to 65% in the near future.
In 2015, the Moroccan government allocated MAD 69 billion towards developing infrastructure in Morocco’s southern landscape, including roads, universities, airports, hospitals, and more. The recent Tangier-Casablanca high speed rail project, a MAD 36 billion investment that has rendered Morocco’s infrastructure more modern and efficient in recent years, is also a major development for the country’s infrastructure industry
With the government incentives and foreign investments’ rapid implementation in Morocco, financial experts anticipate the automotive sector to grow by MAD 126 billion within the next five years.
