King Mohammed IV and CEO of Neo Motors at the Palace in Rabat (Photo: Neo Motors)
King Mohammed IV last week officially launched the first original Moroccan car project, the NamX. Original, because Morocco is already the largest car manufacturer in Africa, with factories of Peugeot-Citroën and Renault. [
Fauji Anja, president of Neo Motors, which is developing the car, presented it to the king at his palace in Rabat. It is a pretentious project to create a hydrogen-powered crossover, using a fuel cell.
Will the Moroccan startup succeed where only Toyota, Honda and Mercedes have succeeded so far? (Photo by Getty Images/GettyImages)
Only a few large manufacturers, such as Toyota, Honda and Mercedes, already produce such cars in limited production. The Moroccan-French startup developing the vehicle enlisted Pininfarina's workshop to design it, and announced that it is building a factory for it that will be able to produce about 2025,27 cars a year from 580 in the Ein Odeh area, near Rabat, and will employ 15 people when production accelerates.
However, the amount of reported investment seems low for such a project: $ <> million.
More in Walla!
Shahal's TripleSafe - 3 life-saving devices, and now one as a gift
Presented by Shahal
Storage machine for hydrogen tanks to be replaced by drivers (Photo: Pininfarina)
According to simulations released by the Pinipharina workshop, the vehicle will be equipped with six small hydrogen tanks located at the rear, in order to enable their rapid replacement by the driver himself, from changing stations where he can find full tanks, as has already been done with electric scooters.
Dacia Sandro. Made in Morocco (Photo: Dacia)
While it remains unclear whether Neo Motors will be able to deliver on its promises, Morocco already has a substantial auto industry. In 2022, 180,37 new cars were sold in the country, slightly for a country of 10 million people, and about two-thirds of what was sold last year in Israel, with 470 million residents. On the other hand, 10,300 new cars were produced in Morocco last year, an increase of 400%, compared to zero in Israel.
Low wage costs, about a quarter of that in Spain this year overseas, have attracted Peugeot-Citroën, now part of Stellantis, and Renault, which manufactures Dacia Sandro and Logan models in Tangier, and the Kangoo and Dacia Sandro in Sumca. Dennis De Walt, Dacia's CEO, announced that the company's local factory will build the next generation of the Sandro, which will be all-electric.
Stellantis already announced last year that it would invest 3 million euros in increasing the production capacity of its Cantira plant to <>,<> a year and build the next generation Citroën C<>.
- Car
- Car News
Tags
- Morocco
