El Nasr starts building the MAGE EV in Helwan, with up to 45% local parts
State-owned El Nasr Automotive has started production of the Dongfeng MAGE EV, billed as Egypt's first locally manufactured electric car. No Egypt price has been announced yet.
Helwan, Cairo
El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company has started producing the MAGE EV, an electric crossover sold under China's Dongfeng MAGE brand, CairoScene reported on Monday. The car is being described as Egypt's first locally manufactured electric vehicle, and it comes off the lines with up to 45% local content.
The car is a joint effort. El Nasr, the state-owned company behind Egypt's best-known national car brand of past decades, builds it at its factories, while SN Automotive, Dongfeng's local agent, and Safi Group are its partners on the project. The launch was attended by Minister of Industry Khaled Hashem and Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mahmoud Esmat, according to the report.
El Nasr's plant is in Helwan, south of Cairo. Masrawy reported on 30 October that its production lines are designed for 10 cars an hour, that the plant currently turns out about 30 cars a day, and that the target is 80 a day in the coming period. The company also builds electric and environmentally friendly buses and minibuses, which already exceed 60% local content.
The ministers set out what comes next. Hashem said the ministry would push to raise local content and expand the making of components in Egypt, with batteries, electric motors and car electronics named as the parts to localise. The government's Automotive Industry Development Programme gives incentives linked to local value added, production volume, investment and environmental standards. Esmat said El Nasr had upgraded its assembly, painting and welding lines and trained its staff with private-sector partners.
For buyers, the key fact is still missing: neither El Nasr nor Dongfeng's Egypt site has published a price, range or battery size for the locally made MAGE EV yet. The car is listed among Dongfeng's models on dongfeng-egypt.com, and the brand has three showrooms in Cairo: on the Martyr Corridor in El Katameya, at Cairo Festival City on the Ring Road in New Cairo, and on El Mahwar Road at Royal City in 6th of October. They open Saturday to Thursday from 9am to 9pm, and the hotline, 17433, answers daily from 9am to 9pm. It is worth calling before you visit to ask whether the EV is on display and when orders open.