The Casablanca factory in Morocco is fully owned by the Renault Group since March 2019. The group also owns another factory in Tangier, which started operating in 2012. Additionally, Stellantis produces automobiles in Kenitra, which will double its local production capacity and introduce a smart car platform to achieve a commercial ambition of capturing more than 22% market share in the region.
In light of this, it would perhaps be a matter of time until the first Moroccan car brand emerges. Neo Motors is a young company founded in 2018 by entrepreneur Nassim Belkhayat and Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, currently the Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication of Morocco, with the aim of providing affordable mobility in the country. The Neo is the first car in line with these principles, a robustly built SUV with a length of 3.9m, manufactured at the brand’s facility in the outskirts of Rabat.
“We wanted to make a car for the people, like VW did a century ago,” stated Nassim Belkhayat in an interview with Bloomberg. “We manufacture our own body, our own chassis, and the electrical wiring system, and the rest is supplied by 43 local suppliers.”
Stellantis is responsible for supplying the engines, and the Neo SUV will be available from December with a 1.2-liter, three-cylinder gasoline engine producing 82 hp, or with a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engine producing 115 hp. Both options are paired with a manual transmission.
According to Bloomberg, the Neo costs less than 20,000 euros, including LED headlights, 15″ alloy wheels, Bluetooth, USB, Android Auto, and Apple CarPlay. It is expected to reach 3,000 units in 2024 and increase to 15,000 annual units in 2025, the year in which Neo Motors has also set the goal of launching a fully electric version.
