Chinese automaker to produce electric cars in Egypt
Egypt’s oldest automotive manufacturing company has signed a deal with China’s Dongfeng Motor to produce electric cars for the first time in the country.
In what could be a win-win situation for both countries, Egypt’s state-owned El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company and China’s Dongfeng Motor signed an agreement on June 18 to produce electric cars for the first time in Egypt.
According to the agreement with the Chinese automaker, El Nasr will produce 25,000 electric vehicles annually. Egyptian Minister of Public Enterprise Sector Hisham Tawfik said the agreement will mark a comeback for El Nasr, which has been shuttered since 2009.
As part of a dream to turn Egypt into an industrial hub, late President Gamal Abdel Nasser founded El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company in 1959. The company began production in 1960 at the rate of eight cars a day. El Nasr operated until 2009, assembling Fiat cars, until the government decreed that its assets be liquidated.
“Both sides will benefit,” said Benjamin Cavender, director at the Shanghai-based China Market Research Group. “Selling Chinese electric vehicles to governments in Africa and Southeast Asia makes a lot of sense as countries in these regions are looking for manufacturing jobs and investment money,” Cavender told Al-Monitor, noting that financially strained Chinese automakers would be inclined to do the same.
