Egypt, China's Foton Motor aim to localize producing electric buses in Egypt

CAIRO - Egypt's Ministry of Military Production and China's vehicle manufacturer Foton Motor celebrated on Tuesday the launch of a new project for jointly manufacturing electric buses in Egypt.

During a ceremony in Salam city, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, both sides also celebrated the delivery of Foton's first batch of two electric buses for Egypt.

Speaking at the ceremony, Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohammed al-Assar said he was honored to receive the first two buses as part of the first phase of a deal to manufacture the buses in Egypt.

The localization of the production of electric buses in Egypt will be carried out in cooperation between Egypt's Ministry of Military Production, Foton Motor and the Egyptian company IMUT.

In April, the Egyptian ministry signed an agreement with Foton Motor to produce 2,000 electric buses in one of the ministry's factories in four years.

Under the agreement, some 48 electric buses will be delivered to the Egyptian army's factory in December 2019.

"The Ministry of Military Production signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding with Chinese companies in the field of vehicle manufacturing in general, including the signing of Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a factory for the production of electric vehicle charging stations," al-Assar said.

He said his ministry was working at full capacity to expedite the completion of the localization and technology transfer of the electric bus production in Egypt to serve the transport sector.

"Egypt will soon witness a new industrial revolution to keep pace with the technological development in the field of manufacturing electric cars in the world," the minister said.