Moroccan start-up in London sets sights on 'first African-designed electric car'

Company founders say vehicle will have 'vibrant Moroccan character'

Factories in Morocco are used to produce cars by manufacturers such as Citroen and Renault. AFP

A Moroccan start-up announced on Thursday that it hopes to build the “first African-designed electric vehicle” with help from the British motor industry.

Founders Mohammed Yehya El Bakkali and Mohammed Hicham Senhaji Hannoun hope to one day export battery-powered cars from Morocco to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Their company, Atlas, is working from a London headquarters in the hope of blending British expertise with what they say will be a “vibrant Moroccan character” for the vehicle.

Production in Morocco, which is already used as a manufacturing site by European vehicle producers such as Renault and Citroen, could start from 2026.

The National was told the new company is aiming to “flip the previous Moroccan car industry norm” by having an African-designed car exported elsewhere.

A separate initiative by another company, Neo Motors, has produced a prototype of a hydrogen-powered vehicle that was recently put on display for King Mohammed VI.

Atlas’s ambition is for a battery-powered vehicle that founders admit will require a wider electric charging infrastructure in Morocco.

They hope to team up with other companies to be part of the wider electric vehicle shake-up.

“We do not underestimate the magnitude, or the complexity of the undertaking required to help end the era of fossil-fuel-dependent mobility in Africa,” said the company’s chief technology officer Mr Senhaji Hannoun.

“Simply creating an all-electric vehicle on its own will not prove sufficient.”

Mr El Bakkali, Atlas’s chief executive, said Africa was “being ignored” by electric vehicle makers.

“However, no one should underestimate the continent’s determination to advance nor doubt its ability to produce world-leading zero-carbon-free technological solutions,” he said.

“In the field of transportation, these will prove pivotal to helping limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2°C.”

The founders say they have “substantial private funding”. Company documents show former Jaguar Land Rover executive Phil Popham is one of Atlas’s shareholders.

The company says it has people with experience in the tech and vehicle industries and the financial sector lined up for an advisory board, as it looks to British car makers for expertise.

However, it says its eventual product will be “inspired by Moroccan design and identity”.

Morocco produced more than 400,000 cars last year, putting it in the world’s top 30, according to the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.

Factories in Morocco include a plant near Tangier used by France’s Renault Group, which produces models such as the Sandero and Renault Express van.

A factory in Kenitra opened in 2019 and is preparing to double in size under plans announced last year by US conglomerate Stellantis, whose brands include Citroen and Opel.

It plans to make 50,000 small electric vehicles per year at the site, such as a scooter-like mobility vehicle called the Opel Rocks-e.

Global electric car sales could leap by 35 per cent this year, caused by rising fuel prices and the push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a forecast by the International Energy Agency last month.

At the same time, high living costs and interest rates meant demand for new electric cars in the UK dropped by more than half in the 14 months to March, a survey by used-car business Auto Trader found.