Egypt is joining the Middle East’s quest for electric vehicles, tasked with collaborating with a Chinese business to develop inexpensive automobiles while utilizing the country’s renewable energy growth to power them.
Public Enterprise Minister Hisham Tawfik said in an interview that authorities are in communication with three possible partners as they look for a partner for El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Co. on the project, which would see 2 billion pounds ($127 million) spent. Production is expected to begin in 2023, with a three-year ramp-up to 20,000 units per year.
Egypt’s electric variant, codenamed E70 or A70, would cost roughly $20,000, according to Tawfik, with half of the purchasers likely to be a taxi or Uber drivers. That’s about the same as Europe’s cheapest EV, Renault’s Dacia Spring, which is built in China.
The private sector will also be given a 40% stake in a new firm set up to run pay-to-use charging stations, with El Nasr taking 10% and a “governmental entity” taking the other half, Tawfik added without elaborating. Before they are offered elsewhere, the initial wave of 3,000 charging spots will be installed in Cairo and Alexandria.
“Egypt today generates all forms of renewable energy,” the minister added, citing the country’s large wind and solar power installations as an example. “This implies we have the infrastructure in place to take the automobile sector into the future.”
It’s a big task for the Arab world’s most populous country, with more than 100 million inhabitants, and only approximately 350 electric cars on the road, according to Tawfik. Although financial incentives granted to owners of normal vehicles to switch them to natural gas will also be extended to EVs to stimulate purchases, that’s a tiny percentage of the approximately 5 million private automobiles registered.
The situation is similar in the larger Mideast area, which is heavily reliant on oil riches, where EV adoption has lagged behind that of China, the United States, and Europe. Saudi Arabia is going to create its own, so things are starting to change.
According to Tawfik, Egyptian firm Brightskies Inc. has also struck an agreement with state-owned Engineering Automotive Manufacturing Co. to design and build electric buses and minibusses beginning in 2022. In the long run, Egypt would consider producing hydrogen-powered electric vehicles, he added.
Egypt is ramping up its green energy output as it prepares to host the COP27 climate meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh next year. Renewable energy accounts for 8.6% of the North African nation’s power, with a goal of 20% by 2022 and more than double by 2035.
