Morocco’s automotive industry shifts gears to prep for electric vehicle era

By SAM METZ
Associated Press

TANGIERS, Morocco (AP) — Morocco has grown its automotive industry from virtually non-existent to Africa’s largest in less than two decades. The North African kingdom supplies more cars to Europe than China, India or Japan, and has the capacity to produce 700,000 vehicles a year. Moroccan officials are determined to maintain the country’s role as a car-making juggernaut by competing for electric vehicle projects. But whether one of Africa’s few industrialization success stories can stay competitive as worldwide auto production transitions to EVs and increasingly relies on automation remains to be seen. Morocco’s industry and trade minister says the government is focused on offering more than cheap labor to foreign automakers that are looking for outsourcing destinations.