Ashok Leyland's EV Factory in Egypt

 

Ashok Leyland's EV Factory in Egypt

After imposing complete ban on import of Indian three wheeler vehicles previously Egypt now wants help from an Indian Firm to setup to setup an EV production line for the local production of the vehicles as they plan to transform their transport system to local electric commercial vehicles. Ashok Leyland having technology to manufacture diesel engines, battery, fuel cells, hydrogen internal combustion engines and biofuel engines ties up with Egyptian car manufacturer El Nasr to form a JV for electric vehicles.
El Nasr was already in talks with some Chinese firms regarding formation of JV to manufacture EV commercial vehicles but due to failed term and conditions these talks were not successful. Unlike Chinese firms, Ashok Leyland has promised to provide some critical technologies to El Nasr used in the production of EV's helping them to locally source the parts and components reducing dependency on other countries in this field. The agreements for technology transfer are in for Mini vans, Pickup trucks and Electric buses. In past Egypt has imported 1000 EV buses from China with two major players dominating the market namely King long and Foton Global. After this agreement Ashok Leyland will be facing these as competitions.
El Nasr already operates a production unit in Cairo, Egypt which will be in initial phase will be expanded for this JV production line. Ashok Leyland will import the EV in knockdown kits to Egypt and local assembly will be done but as the expansion grows further then local production line for the parts will be made by Ashok Leyland.
To understand this model better, model of Maruti's JV with Suzuki in Indian market is best.
It's not decided yet under which brand name it will be sold in Egyptian markets. India has progressed a lot from taking assistance to providing assistance in last few decades.