Morocco's Car Industry: Where the Supply-Chain Opportunities Are

At a glance

Automotive exports reached MAD 159.2 billion in 2025, the largest export sector for the third year in a row (Office des Changes). January–July 2026 exports rose 14.9% to MAD 107.1 billion.
Morocco produced about 500,000 vehicles in 2025. Renault built 394,474 at its two plants; Stellantis's expanded Kenitra plant has capacity for 535,000 a year, micro-cars included.
Local sourcing targets: Renault aims to lift its rate from 65.5% (2025) to 80% by 2030, Stellantis from over 60% to 75%.
In 2026 alone, Chinese suppliers including Yunyi Electric, Guizhou Tire, Sanlian Forging and Zhejiang Asia-Pacific announced plants in Tangier.
Gotion High-Tech began commissioning its Kenitra battery plant in late October 2026, with 20 GWh of cell capacity planned in phase one.

Morocco came to car-making relatively late, but it has grown fast. Tangier, Kenitra and Casablanca now host a full chain of assembly plants and suppliers, most of it geared to European buyers.

According to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA), Morocco produced 501,965 vehicles in 2025, about 40.8% of Africa's output. Together with South Africa it accounts for more than 91% of the continent's production (Morocco World News).

For Chinese component makers, the appeal is simple: proximity to Europe and carmakers that are actively trying to buy more parts locally. The opportunity is real, and so are the entry requirements.

Exports: automotive still leads

Citing the Office des Changes annual report, Hespress reports automotive exports of MAD 159.2 billion in 2025, flat against MAD 159.6 billion in 2024, out of total national exports of MAD 470 billion. Vehicle assembly fell by MAD 9.6 billion, while wiring rose 9% and interiors and seats 11.5%.

Momentum returned in 2026. Office des Changes figures reported by Hespress put automotive exports at MAD 107.14 billion for January–July, up 14.9% year on year:

Segment	Jan–Jul 2026 exports	Change
Vehicle assembly	MAD 42.48bn	+19.9%
Wiring	MAD 40.62bn	+13.8%
Exterior components	MAD 3.42bn	+47.9%

Assembly and wiring each account for close to 40% of the total. Exterior parts are still small, but their growth suggests that exports are broadening beyond wiring harnesses into a wider range of components.

The two anchors: Renault and Stellantis

Plant	Location	Key figures
Renault Tanger Med	Tangier	299,395 vehicles in 2025, 95% exported
Renault Somaca	Casablanca	95,079 vehicles in 2025, 47% exported
Stellantis Kenitra	Kenitra	Capacity 535,000/year incl. micro-mobility; local integration above 60%

Renault's figures come from Morocco World News, which puts its installed Moroccan capacity above 500,000 vehicles and its export reach at 63 markets. On 29 October 2025, Renault and the government signed an addendum to their investment agreement covering 2025–2030: new hybrid and electric models built in Morocco by 2030, an engineering and R&D centre, and 7,500 direct and indirect jobs (Hespress).

According to Stellantis's press release, the Kenitra expansion was inaugurated in July 2025. Car capacity on the Smart Car platform rises to 400,000 units from February 2026, alongside the Citroën Ami, Opel Rocks-e and Fiat Topolino electric micro-cars, a new mild-hybrid engine line and EV charger production.

Most finished cars leave through Tanger Med. The port's 2025 activity report shows 526,862 new vehicles handled, down 12% on 2024: 327,569 exported from Renault's plants and 126,874 from Stellantis Kenitra. The same port moved 11.1 million TEU of containers, so sea links for inbound and outbound parts are well established.

Local sourcing: the number that matters

Integration targets explain much of the opportunity. In June 2025, Industry and Trade Minister Ryad Mezzour told parliament that the sector's local integration rate stood at about 70%, and that vehicle capacity would rise from 700,000 to 1 million units by the end of 2025 (Hespress). That million is capacity; actual 2025 output was around half of it.

Renault's local purchasing reached MAD 23.9 billion in 2024, with a target of MAD 30 billion by 2030. Stellantis plans to buy more than €6 billion from Moroccan suppliers by 2030, with a 75% integration rate (TelQuel).

Put simply, carmakers need more parts made in Morocco, and that leaves room for new suppliers.

Choosing a zone: Tangier or Kenitra

Suppliers cluster in three main zones:

Zone	Location	Size	Profile
Tanger Automotive City	Tanger Med industrial platform	Expansion from 517 to 1,185 ha approved in 2024	Dedicated automotive park near Renault's Tangier plant
Mohammed VI Tanger Tech City	Tangier	2,167 ha planned in total	Launched in 2023; strong Chinese presence in battery materials, tyres and copper
Atlantic Free Zone	About 10 km east of Kenitra	345 ha	Next to Stellantis; tenants include Lear and Fujikura

Sources: Challenge, Tanger Med, CDG.

Challenge reports more than 150 tier-1 to tier-3 operators around Tanger Med, with over $4 billion of cumulative investment. When TelQuel looked at Tanger Tech in July 2024, 12 of its 14 confirmed investors were Chinese.

As a rule of thumb, suppliers serving mainly Renault look at Tangier first; those serving Stellantis or the battery projects should look closely at Kenitra.

2026: a new wave of Chinese suppliers

Chinese firms are not new here. Citic Dicastal signed a €350 million agreement in 2018 to make aluminium wheels in Kenitra and Tangier, with planned capacity of 6 million units a year (Ministry of Industry and Trade). In July 2025, Broad-Ocean Motor committed MAD 1.245 billion to design and build hybrid and electric motors on a 161,000 m² site in Tanger Automotive City (Tanger Med).

The pace picked up in 2026:

Company	Products	Location	What has been announced
Jiangsu Yunyi Electric	Regulators, rectifiers, wiper systems	Tanger Tech	About $66m; filed with the Shenzhen exchange in July 2026 (Le360)
Guizhou Tire	Passenger radial tyres, 6m a year	Tanger Tech	$298.7m; overseas investment certificate on 11 August 2026 (Morocco World News)
Sanlian Forging	Forgings	Tanger Tech	Subsidiary registered August 2026; €18m filing (Morocco World News)
Zhejiang Asia-Pacific Mechanical & Electronic	Brakes, electronic chassis control	Tanger Tech	$70m; first plant outside China, due to open before end-2026 (North Africa Post)
Ningbo Gaofa	Gear shifters, e-pedals, cables	Site not yet chosen	Up to $20m; approvals not finalised as of its 2025 annual report (Morocco World News)
Gotion High-Tech	EV battery cells	Kenitra	MAD 13bn phase one; commissioning from the week of 20 October 2026; 400+ local hires (Morocco World News)

Gotion also plans a 100,000-tonne-a-year cathode joint venture with Volkswagen's PowerCo. The list shows that this is not only a game for giant tyre and battery projects: several entrants are mid-sized parts makers investing tens of millions of dollars.

Case study: how Sentury built in Tangier

Qingdao Sentury Tire's Tangier plant is a useful benchmark for how long a Chinese manufacturing project takes in Morocco.

Date	Milestone
End-December 2022	Announces a $297m plant for 6 million car and light-truck radial tyres a year (European Rubber Journal)
August 2023	Secures about 200,000 m² of land, some 35 km from Tanger Med port; construction expected to take about 18 months (Morocco World News)
April 2024	Redirects about RMB 2.8bn from a delayed Spanish project to Morocco, targeting 12 million tyres a year in two phases (Hespress)
Late 2024	Production starts; 2025 output expected at 6–8 million tyres (European Rubber Journal)

Land to first production took roughly 16 months, close to the original plan. Sentury cited Morocco's political and economic stability, proximity to Europe and low investment costs. The Spanish detour is telling: the same money that stalled in permitting in Galicia moved ahead in Tangier.

Sentury is a listed company with deep pockets and an experienced project team, so smaller firms should expect a different pace. But the sequence is instructive.

How a Chinese SME can enter: six steps

Based on what these companies have done publicly, a mid-sized parts maker would typically proceed as follows:

Secure a customer and a product first. Talk to buyers at Renault, Stellantis and their tier-1 suppliers to confirm which parts they want localised, at what volumes and with what certification. Building before there is a clear sourcing intention is risky.
Visit the zones. Compare land, ready-built factories, logistics and labour in Tangier and Kenitra, and meet potential customers on the same trip.
Rent before you buy. Anwen Technology leased a 4,200 m² unit in Tanger Med Zones from September 2024, then bought a plot of nearly 20,000 m² in Tanger Tech in 2025, almost five times the space (Bladi).
Complete the outbound investment filing in China. Sanlian and Guizhou Tire both cleared Chinese overseas investment procedures before setting up in Morocco. Plan the route for moving capital early.
Register the company and apply for support. After incorporation comes zone admission. Under Morocco's investment charter, an SME scheme covers investments of MAD 1–50 million; automotive components are a priority sector, and combined grants are capped at 30% of the investment. Applications go through the regional investment centres' CRI-invest.ma platform (Hespress). Projects of at least MAD 50 million with at least 50 stable jobs fall under the main support scheme (Casablanca-Settat CRI). Approval is at the authorities' discretion.
Equipment, people and certification. Import machinery, hire and train staff, build a quality system, then move through samples and small-batch supply towards IATF 16949 certification. From January 2026 the non-agricultural minimum wage is MAD 17.92 an hour (Hespress); social charges and training come on top.

Five questions to ask before you invest

Has the target customer issued a written RFQ or nomination? Will the volume fill a production line?
Will you ship through Tanger Med or supply Kenitra directly, and have logistics costs been worked out?
Will raw materials come from China or be sourced locally, and how does that affect rules of origin and local-content rates?
Who will lead the plant on the ground, and how will you build a French-speaking local quality team?
How much time and cash have you set aside from registration to series production, and how long can you last if orders slip?

The challenges

Certification. Supplying carmakers usually requires IATF 16949 automotive quality certification, and a Moroccan plant needs its own. Turkey's Martur Fompak, for example, had its Moroccan plant certified in 2021.
Established competition. European, Japanese, Korean and Turkish suppliers have years of history with Renault and Stellantis, and Chinese peers are now arriving in numbers. Newcomers need a clear edge on price, lead time or technology.
Volume swings. Renault's Moroccan output fell about 5% in 2025 and new-vehicle traffic at Tanger Med fell 12%; orders track European demand closely.
Skills and language. French and Arabic dominate the workplace, and skilled technicians and quality engineers need training. Renault alone trained more than 6,000 participants locally in 2025.
Timelines. Outbound filing in China, company registration, zone admission, equipment imports and certification depend on each other. Some announced projects are still in approvals more than a year later.

What it means for Chinese businesses

Parts manufacturers. Wiring, interiors and seats are still growing, exterior parts are accelerating, and castings, forgings, electronic controls, brake and chassis parts, rubber and plastics are all part of the localisation drive. Confirm customers and certification needs before sizing a plant.
EV supply chain. Gotion, Broad-Ocean and Stellantis's electrification projects create demand for battery materials, motor components, structural parts, cables and test equipment.
Tooling, automation and maintenance. With several Chinese plants under construction at once, installation, commissioning, servicing and spare parts are in demand, and a service team can enter before any factory is built.
Service firms. Logistics, packaging, quality consulting, technical training and recruitment, plus housing and daily support for Chinese engineers, all grow as more Chinese plants open.

A sensible first step is a site visit to Tangier and Kenitra, with meetings at the zones and with potential customers, before committing to an investment plan.

Sources

Information as of November 2026, for general reference only; not investment advice.

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