Minister of Public Business Sector Hisham Tawfik has recently announced that Egypt will sign an agreement with a Chinese company to build an electric car factory.
Such an agreement will put Egypt on the map for electric vehicle (EV) manufacture.
The Chinese are not alone in eyeing up EV prospects here. France’s Stellantis, which owns Peugeot, Citroen and Chrysler, is already planning to set up a plant to produce vehicles for the domestic market and for export.
Mercedes-Benz is following a similar avenue.
Several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) have been signed for the provision of infrastructure and offering incentives to attract other big names in the emerging EV industry.
That China hopes to step into the fray as its EV exports to Europe in terms of market share were second to Germany’s in 2021.
Efforts to localise the EV industry have been supported and closely followed up by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, who said Egypt should go beyond assembling cars and manufacture our own with increasing proportions of locally-made components. To that end, the president directed the government to strengthen local manufacturing and promote co-operation with international companies in this field.
And it’s all in the noble cause of reducing carbon emissions, which Egypt is taking seriously with an initiative to convert 450,000 cars to run on natural gas.
Besides, a local EV would bring economic benefits to feeder industries and export earnings.
Dramatic improvements in automotive technology and the growth of the EV market have introduced a wide range of opportunities for the future of the global energy industry.
According to several futuristic analyses, the coming years will see many more electric vehicles take to the roads, seas, and skies, and within two decades, the largest automotive markets will be fully electric.
While the way for manufacturing electric vehicles seemed to be challenging, future opportunities are worth fighting for.
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