MOROCCO – Global electric car manufacturer Tesla has expanded its network of supercharging stations in Morocco to Rabat, Marrakech, with more stations coming soon in Fes and Marrakech.
Tesla superchargers will be available across five Moroccan cities, in addition to already-existing Casablanca and Tangier supercharging stations.
First spotted in Morocco in October 2021, Tesla superchargers became available shortly after in Casablanca, the first such installation in all of Africa.
A supercharger has a 150KW charging capacity delivering a 200-mile range in just 15 minutes’ time, promising to eradicate “range anxiety,” a primary reason behind people’s reluctance to adopt electric vehicles.
The emergence of supercharging is projected to drive significant growth in demand for electric cars in Africa.
In addition to holding the highest number of superchargers on the African continent, Morocco is home to major suppliers in the global electric car manufacturing chain.
In 2021, STMicroelectronics’ manufacturing plant, located 20 kilometers off Casablanca, began producing semiconductor chips for Tesla cars, according to multiple reports.
The North African country is also now home to two cobalt plants, a critical component for the manufacturing of electric vehicles batteries.
Morocco is the 12-largest global exporter of cobalt, and home to one of the only two known reserves in the world, alongside Canada.
The move by Tesla to expand Supercharging stations in Morocco mirrors the manufactures expansion efforts globally.
Tesla has been expanding its Supercharging network in countries like China and US at a very high rate of almost 3 stations per day, as per the average of the second quarter of this year.
The number of new supercharging stations is now above 3,000 while the number of individual stalls is pegged at about 30,000.
The Tesla supercharging has been claimed to be a reliable and satisfactory charging solution for those traveling long distances using Tesla’s electric vehicle.
Gradually, it is expected that the electric vehicle company will also open its charging network to other companies’ electric vehicles as well.
In 2020, the North African country signed an agreement with German car manufacturer BMW to extract cobalt in Morocco.
Under the deal, BMW moved cobalt mining operations from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to a deal with Morocco-based mining company Managem.
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