today the automotive industry in africa has concentrated solely on south Africa and, to a lesser extent in the Maghreb. The black continent is very backward in that sense, is dependent on enormous extent of imports of new cars or used outside. On the other hand, the number of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants is the fourth part of the world average.
In some countries, are mounted very limited quantities of vehicles that come made partially from outside, which needs a lot less labor and less specialized. In some countries it wants to give rise to an industrial fabric full, covering the entire value chain.
Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria or Kenya are the major stakeholders
The Maghreb was already gaining prominence to increase the interest of the manufacturers French in their previous places of influence. PSA and Renault have a lot of hopes in Morocco and Algeria, as they start to have internal demand enough to have factories in situ and able to pull from local suppliers.
Operator in the factory of Renault in Algeria
That is the crux of the matter, the starting point. Not only is that the governments authorize the lifting of factories and made things easy for the foreign investment. It is also necessary that there be an ecosystem of suppliers in order not to lose competitiveness. Is a process that takes years.
Nigeria is the country with the highest probability to accommodate this industry, in view of their high population level and the weight in the economy of the continent. Their automobile industry is non-existent, the roads -when you can call it that – are not in the best state possible, and its inhabitants have difficulties to access finance.
it Is neither more nor less than to repeat the same thing has been done in other emerging countries, which went from nothing to powers construction. The continent leader is the asian, almost half of the vehicles produced in 2015 will come from there, according to the data of the OICA. It went from import to produce, and produce to export.
| Country | Production vehicles in 2015 | Variation compared to 2014 |
|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 20.000 | +1.507,7% |
| Egypt | 36.000 | -15,3% |
| Morocco | 288.329 | +24,3% |
| south Africa | 615.658 | +8.8% in |
| Tunisia | 540 | – |
| TOTAL | 835.937 | +16,2% |
Source: OICA
The next country to join the club of producers, although on a very small scale, is Kenya. Volkswagen begins producing before the end of the year, the Polo Vivo (previous generation in Europe, 9N), with a print run of 1,000 cars per year. It is very common to be sold in developing countries, models now being repaid.
manufacturers interested in expanding their business opportunities in the area include BMW, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota or Volkswagen. To stimulate the domestic demand will be necessary for some countries to hinder the import of cars from abroad, so that the national product more competitive.
The interest of Nigeria comes from the drop of the revenues from the lowering of the price of a barrel of oil, since that is an exporter of fuel. Raise the need of a diversified economy and less dependent on a few sectors, such as petrochemical. On the other hand, generates value and high quality work.
Volkswagen Polo Vivo
Gradually expand the african market and more car manufacturers will be interesting to settle there. Already has spent in Latin america or southeast asia, that in a few years they went from producing a few thousand units to reach volumes of tens of millions. This transformation will take time.
unlike traditional markets developed, such as the USA, Japan or Europe, the regulations are much more flexible in Africa, both in terms of emissions and safety. It may, therefore, continue to return to models already out of print, sold as new in Africa. If made in situ, will have a more favourable treatment by the authorities.
Much later, some african countries may be interesting exporters by their lower costs of production, always and when you can meet the standard of quality touches. In fact, in Spain we already have models rolling that have been manufactured in Africa, as Dacia Dokker or Lodgy. The economy has not only become globalized.
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