Located in Tangiers, Morocco, the plant was inaugurated last February and churns out about 170,000 cars a year. Renault is in the process of expanding it in order to push that number up to 400,000 by 2015. Once the construction work is over the plant will have cost an estimated $1.2 billion and will employ approximately 6,000 workers.
Renault's investments in Africa are proof that it has learned from the mistake it made on the Chinese market. It showed up too late and with a lineup that wasn't particularly well-adapted to Chinese needs and consequently found itself far behind the competition.
"Africa is stabilizing," said Jean-Christophe Kugler, Renault's senior vice president for the African region, in an interview with Bloomberg. "It's better to take positions right now to have new growth drivers when other markets start to mature."
The investments in Africa are also a way for the French manufacturer to rely less and less on the depressed European market.
Renault is not the only automaker that is showing an interest in the burgeoning African market. A Kenya-based startup company called Mobius recently unveiled the Mobius Two, a boxy two-door SUV that is billed as a people's car for the African continent.
