Car manufacturing in Africa

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Sat 23 May 2009 00:20
Car manufacturing in Africa - stunorthants26
I was wondering if there was any homegrown car production on the African continent aside from SA?
I was pondering why it was that none of the big car companies has made a factory in one of these terribly poor countries as Im sure the wage cost relative to the rest of the world would be very low, but still very good for the employees.
I mean they send lots of aid there and thats all very well, but in the same way its better to help people become farmers rather than just send food, wouldnt it be even better to send some production capacity there and give them a chance to earn some real money?

Just an idea, I did a search and I couldnt find anything that immediately answered the question. I imagine there is a good reason, but what is it?
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Sat 23 May 2009 01:50
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - motorprop
corruption and political instability ?
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Sat 23 May 2009 03:40
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - Lud
Cars are or have been assembled in Algeria, Nigeria, Kenya and Cote d'Ivoire at least, and I would bet on Egypt and Morocco too.

Don't know about these days but Nigeria used to have its own VW model, the Igala. Really made in Brazil though.
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Sat 23 May 2009 08:15
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - loskie
I'm pretty sure the MK1 Golf is still made in SAfrica. My other half's polo 52 plate was a grey import and was made in Morocco
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Sat 23 May 2009 21:15
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - motorprop
My other half's polo 52 plate was a grey import and was made in Morocco ( sure about this ? )


That's like claiming Kazakhstan and French Guyana have their own space program
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Sat 23 May 2009 22:32
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - Harmattan
Very possible that bits of the Polo were made in Morocco although a quick Google doesn't turn up the factory. What is interesting is that Renault-Nissan have been building the Logan and Kangoo there for several years through an affiliate. Until the recent downturn Renault was planning a joint venture for 2010 with the Moroccan government that would have built 200,000 cars a year rising in time to 400,000. They claimed last December it was still going ahead. Lots of vehicle parts built in Morocco apparently and there are quite a few high-tech industries. You could argue that the 2CVs that came out of the Paris factory were Moroccan built as there were hardly any French workers according to contemporary accounts. CAR had an amusing article on this back in the last days of the 2CV. The Peugeot 504 was still assembled in Nigeria until recently and still on sale a couple of years ago because I looked into buying a new one but it was very expensive compared to a Japanese import. Costs of production can be high in Africa because of the logistics of importing raw materials. The Peugeot moped copies made in Burkina Faso are about 30 per cent more to buy than a Chinese bike at £350 but are admittedly more reliable.
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Sat 23 May 2009 22:55
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - stunorthants26
Thanks for the info, interesting reading. Has there ever been a purely African owned car maker?
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Sat 23 May 2009 23:33
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - loskie
A lot of the components were labelled Morocco. I seem to remember bar code labels too. It was a grey import supplied by a Spanish VW dealer to a london Broker.
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Sun 24 May 2009 09:05
Car manufacturing in Africa ?? - NARU
When I worked in Kenya 10 years ago, I had a choice between a Subaru AWD estate and a Peugeot 504 - both assembled locally.
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