China's BYD to build a car plant in Tangier joining the two French automotive companies

BYD, a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, buses, forklifts, rechargeable batteries, and trucks with its corporate headquarters in Shenzhen, China, is opening a factory near Tangiers, officials said as reported by AFP. An agreement was signed on the same day for the building of the plant in the region for the industrial production of battery-powered vehicles.

The Chinese company will join the two other carmakers in the country namely Renault and Peugeot. King Mohammed VI and the chairman of BYD, Wang Chuanfu signed the memorandum of understanding for the car plant in the royal palace of Casablanca.

According to the French news agency that new factory will be built in Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City. The latter will produce «electric cars, buses and trucks at a 50-hectare site employing 2,500 people».

«We hope to benefit from Morocco's location as an entry point to Europe and the African market», said Wang explaining that the project will focus on producing cars in its first phase.

BYD is financed by the American tycoon, Warren Buffet and is willing to create a North African Silicon Valley, inspired by the American city known for attracting big IT companies.

Part of Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City

According to Automative News Europe, an online newspaper that covers the European market, BYD is planing to start production by next year.
Morocco is intending to welcome a fourth major automaking plant by the end of 2021 with the objective of producing one million vehicles a year by 2025.

For the record, King Mohammed VI chaired in March 2017 in Tangiers the ceremony to present the project of setting up the «Mohammed VI Tangiers Tech City» and sign the related draft agreement, MAP news agency reported.

The project, carried out by the Tangiers-Tétouan-Al Hoceima region, Chinese group HAITE and BMCE Bank of Africa, is part of the 2014-2020 industrial acceleration plan which included a major strategic aspect linked to the Morocco-China industrial partnership.

According to the same source, the project involves building an economic pole. It also consists of constructing 200 Chinese companies operating in the automotive manufacturing, aerospace industry, aviation components, electronic information, textiles, machinery manufacturing and other industries. The total investment of companies in the area after ten years will reach 10 billion US dollar.