Morocco is currently home to the largest automobile industry in Africa.
Exports from the Moroccan automobile industry reached 33.9 billion dirhams ($3.4 billion) in the first three months of 2023, according to data from the Moroccan Exchange Office (OE).
In a monthly report, the OE explains that the monetary value of the automobile industry's exports increased by 44% compared to the same period of the previous year.
Morocco is currently home to the largest automobile industry in Africa. In 2018, the North African country overtook South Africa as the continent's largest manufacturer.
Morocco's automotive industry is expected to grow by around $14 billion by 2026, research from advisory firm Mordor Intelligence suggests. The industry is experiencing a positive growth trend, thanks to both foreign investment and government incentives.
Although the pandemic caused a temporary slowdown, Morocco has signed 25 different trade agreements with various EU and US automakers starting in 2021.
Moroccan automakers are experiencing growing demand for passenger vehicles, and long-established manufacturers such as Dacia and Renault have been joined by Peugeot, which entered the Moroccan car manufacturing scene in 2019. Chinese manufacturer BYD and the German Volkswagen have also opened production plants in Morocco.
Luxury car manufacturing has also seen significant growth, with the country's top three producers, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, seeing increased sales.
Experts predict that Morocco will have the capacity to produce one million cars by 2030 and is expected to soon surpass Italy in vehicle production. The automotive industry accounted for around 19% of Moroccan GDP in 2019 and is projected to increase to around 24% in 2022, according to Oxford Business Group.
A large portion of the vehicles produced in Morocco are marked for export to various EU countries, and analysts expect this trend to continue as the Moroccan car industry prepares for monumental growth to meet growing demand both in the national and international markets in the next five years.
Source: MoroccoWorldNews