Algeria Can Become An Automotive Pole Within 10 Years

The head of the Association of Mechanics, Adel Bensaci, said that Algeria has great potential that qualifies it to occupy the leadership of the automotive industry in the African continent, and excels in the production of spare parts and accessories for vehicles and handling, but its transformation into an industrial pole in the continent, produced locally and exported to African countries, requires a period of not less than 10 years of work and reviewing the conditions and modalities that are currently under review, adding: “Algeria can occupy the leader in car manufacturing, but it will not happen overnight.
In a statement to “Echorouk”, Bensaci said that the Presidt of the Republic’s visit to the electric car factory in China and his assertion that Algeria is preparing to be a pole in the automotive industry did not come out of nowhere, but rather based on several elements that our country enjoys, the first of which is the important geographical location, its consideration as a transit area between the continents of Africa and Europe, and its ability to conclude partnerships with the Chinese that qualify it to enter the African continent, especially after the President of the Republic said: “We want to enter the brown continent for investment with the Chinese”.
Bensaci emphasized that Algeria, in addition to its geographical location, enjoys preferential agreements with Europe and within the African continent that make its vehicles negotiable in these countries at a different price, as well as a stimulating investment climate following the legal reforms approved last year, the first of which is the new investment law and the incentives it contains, the monetary and banking law, and the laws that are expected to be published in the Official Gazette soon regarding public transactions, pending the economic real estate law that is on the table of the National People’s Assembly.
The head of the mechanics association spoke about the industrial base that Algeria has in the field of car manufacturing, as it started experiments in the fifties of the last century during the French colonial period through the production of the then “R4” cars.
After independence, it cooperated in the sector with several dealers to produce some spare parts, which today qualifies it to restore its industrial balance in this field, saying that the dealers are today ready to produce spare parts and accessories for the expected car factories in Algeria, whether “Stellantis” or the soon-to-be factories. It has not seen the light yet and its owners are waiting for the answer of the assembly to collaborate with it in the production.
Bensaci confirmed that the authorities today are compelled   to provide vehicles for the local market and also for export in the future, while showing some interest in electric cars, which will be a global imperative in a few years when the validity of cars with regular engines expires. We are currently waiting for the response of the Stellantis Group to start cooperation with them for production, especially since the book of conditions imposes a merger rate of 40 percent within 5 year
Our interviewee acknowledged the backwardness of the automotive sector, both in terms of production and imports, is still the same, but he said that it is not too late and that there are still opportunities to revive the sector, to correct the shortcomings of the past and to learn from past mistakes.