Great Wall Motors and its Algerian partner, SARL GWMA, a subsidiary of the Cevital Group, announced accelerated steps to secure the brand’s presence in the Algerian market by establishing an industrial unit for local vehicle production. The unit intends to produce two passenger cars: one powered by a thermal engine and the other by a hybrid engine.
The establishment of a Great Wall Motors factory is not the only one. Geely and Chery have also announced plans to manufacture cars locally in Algeria. Companies such as Jetour, Joyer, Hyundai, JAC, and others have also expressed interest in establishing car factories.
The desire of international car companies to establish factories in Algeria is a good thing, but the reality is not as you might have read. It is not possible to establish such a large number of factories in a country like Algeria, where the car market is small and cannot accommodate such a large number of cars.
However, Algeria appears to be following the same path as Egypt, where dozens of car manufacturing companies operate, assembling one or two models with a local manufacturing percentage exceeding 50 percent. There are also models with a high manufacturing percentage, but these models fall short of local engine manufacturing.
Establishing factories in the Egyptian style is not, in fact, car manufacturing, but rather advanced assembly. These factories provide jobs for young people and training in the mechanical industry. They also reduce some import costs and increase the number of subcontracting companies that produce spare parts used in the manufacture of these cars.
The Egyptian method is neither bad nor good, but Algerian citizens are waiting for real local car manufacturing. The government has repeatedly refused to allow the import of finished cars, citing the need to manufacture them locally. Therefore, if these factories that will be built in the future assemble certain models, this is considered a deception of the ordinary citizen. Why has he been deprived for so long if this is the state of manufacturing?
The Egyptian experience in automobile manufacturing closely resembles the Algerian experience. The purpose of the comparison is to describe the situation, not to praise or criticize one of the two experiences.
There are local factories in Algeria that assemble vehicles, perhaps the most famous of which is the VMS motorcycle factory, which produces various types of motorcycles and scooters. However, despite the abundant production, prices have not decreased; on the contrary, they increase every year.
The Fiat automobile factory is also a living example of vehicle assembly in Algeria. Although it is advertised as a factory that manufactures cars, not assembles them, it has yet to manufacture a single vehicle. It assembles two models: the Fiat 500 and the Fiat Doblo. It has recently begun assembling another model, the Fiat Panorama.
The current Minister of Industry, Mr. Sefi Ghrib, and before him, the former Minister, Mr. Ali Aoun, spoke about the necessity of manufacturing spare parts locally and establishing a true vehicle industry. This must be translated into reality with factories that manufacture, weld, and paint the car body and manufacture the engine, rather than assembling parts from here and there, and then the government announces a car industry in Algeria?
Mass production of cars is the only solution to lowering car prices in the local market, but it appears that the Algerian automotive industry is still in its infancy.
