Egypt localizes EV assembly, production to lift its auto sector, reach sustainable goals

Egypt is making a push towards localizing the assembly and production of electric vehicles (EVs) to boost its auto sector while pursuing sustainable development.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Sunday reopened the state-owned Nasr Auto Company following a 15-year hiatus. Now the company has a capacity to produce more than 40,000 electric vehicles a year as well as EV batteries.

"Egypt, according to the prime minister, now has the capacity to produce half a million electric cars annually and the contracts signed with foreign firms so far will produce about 100,000 cars a year," said Mahmoud Khairy, a car trader and expert from Egypt.

Having free access to European and African markets, the most populous Arab nation can also leverage its strategic geographic location and huge market potential to become a regional hub for exporting self-manufactured vehicles.

"The country will benefit from local production by being partially self-sufficient in vehicles. This means less expenditure on hefty import bills," said Mahmoud Khairy.

The Egyptian government offers various incentives including tariff and tax breaks to encourage foreign companies to set up production locally, which in turn brings in advanced insights and expertise for EV manufacturing.

Egypt has witnessed booming sales of EVs. Electric cars increased from the beginning of July 2021 until the end of June 2024, raising the total number of licensed electric vehicles to 7,213, with BYD as the second best-selling car brand, according to the data.

Several European and Asian brands have already signed up to establish assembly plants in Egypt, including those from China.

Waleed Suleiman, the CEO of Spark EV Company in Egypt, is discussing with his Chinese counterparts plans to establish an assembly plant for Chinese EVs in Egypt.

"The Chinese cars are very advanced, high quality, very reasonable price. When you compare it with European cars and American cars, it's far away. If not a better quality, it's the same quality, but when it comes to price, it's much much lower than the other ones, and that's why people tend to go and buy Chinese cars," he said.

Experts from auto industry have also emphasized the need for EV infrastructure to keep up with the expansion plans.

"The number of recharging points increase gradually, covering main roads and highways and we are building new ones daily.There are 8 companies licensed to establish charging points," said Ahmed Zain, owner of Alienz Auto.

Egypt localizes EV assembly, production to lift its auto sector, reach sustainable goals

China will push for the rollout of next-generation communication networks ahead of market demand in the coming five years, a senior official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Wednesday at the annual International Postal and Telecommunications Expo (PT Expo).

The push mirrors the development plan recently issued by the ministry for the information and communications industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

According to the plan, a new-generation communications network with comprehensive coverage and leading performance is expected to be fully established by 2030, the 5G user penetration rate will reach 95 percent, gigabit-capable broadband will connect to 320 million households, and intelligent computing power will reach 9,800 EFLOPS -- a unit of computing performance, with each unit representing one quintillion floating-point operations per second.

"We will systemically promote the development of an application-driven and appropriately future-oriented next-generation communications network, push broadband networks toward dual 10-gigabit evolution, and advance the construction of low-Earth orbit satellite internet systems. We will also holistically optimize a communications network that links ground and sea, expand and improve computing facilities, and strengthen computing-network integration and the interconnection of computing power, so as to better support the national integrated computing network," said Yu Xiaohui, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The move came as breakthroughs in digital intelligence technologies -- represented by artificial intelligence -- brought opportunities for the development of information and communication.

As of the end of July, China had deployed over 5.15 million 5G base stations, with early-stage deployment of 10-gigabit optical networks already underway and intelligent computing power standing at 2,185 EFLOPs, according to official data.

China will also deepen the integration of terrestrial and satellite networks, including commercial applications for smartphone direct-to-satellite services and the Internet of Things (IoT), ramp up research and development for 6G base stations, and advance the development of standards in key information and communication sectors, such as computing power networks and quantum communication, according to the development plan.

The PT Expo this year is being held from Tuesday to Thursday in Beijing.

China to push ahead-of-demand rollout of next-generation communications networks