While it exports 12,000 trucks annually to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, Indian carmaker Ashok Leyland is now scouting the electric vehicle market in Egypt through a partnership with El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing.

The share of electric vehicles in the Egyptian car fleet is expected to increase from mid-2023. This is thanks to a partnership recently signed between the Egyptian car manufacturer El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company and the Indian company Ashok Leyland. The two companies, which will form a joint venture, initially plan to extend and modernise an El Nasr factory in the city of Cairo.

The facility should allow the manufacture of trucks, vans, pick-ups and buses in all-electric mode. This will enable the development of less polluting transport in North Africa, particularly in the countries where these vehicles will be imported. According to Mahmoud Esmat, the Egyptian Minister of Public Sector Business, “Egypt has a local market capable of absorbing a large number of productions to provide electric vehicles at affordable prices.

It is above all its range of “circuit” electric buses launched in 2016 that Ashok Leyland wants to spread on the roads of Africa. According to the Hinduja conglomerate company founded in 1948, this vehicle with artificial intelligence (AI) requires a single daily charge to travel up to 120 kilometres. In Egypt, the company headed by engineer Shenu Agarwal is working with other foreign car manufacturers. These include Stellantis.

The development of electric mobility

The multinational group resulting from the merger of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will build a factory for the manufacture and export of electric vehicles in the land of the pharaohs by 2025. At a total cost of $35 million (about 651 million Egyptian pounds), the project will help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Meanwhile, Egyptian energy solutions provider Elsewedy Electric has begun construction of a service centre for the commercialisation of electric motors in 2022 in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Wolong Electric. The facility will be equipped with a test bench capable of testing motors up to 10 MW and 15 kV, notably to improve the quality of electric vehicles.

Courtesy: Afrik 21