The African Development Bank has approved a €100 million ($114 million) loan to Gotion Power Morocco to build what it calls Africa's first integrated lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery gigafactory, marking a major milestone for battery manufacturing on the continent.
The facility, to be built in the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra Free Trade Zone, will run the full cathode-to-cell production process for LFP batteries — the chemistry that now dominates the global electric vehicle mass market. The AfDB said it also plans to mobilize up to an additional €141 million from financial partners under its New African Financial Architecture for Development, which would bring total backing close to €240 million.
The loan approval, announced on July 24, 2026, is the clearest signal yet that Morocco's bet on becoming Africa's manufacturing gateway for EVs and energy storage is gaining tangible momentum.
From 10 to 100 Gigawatt-Hours
The project starts at 10 GWh of annual cell and pack capacity in its first phase, with a stated plan to eventually scale to 100 GWh. While that initial figure sits below the 20 GWh originally cited when Gotion signed its investment agreement with Rabat in 2024 — when total project investment was pegged at up to $6.5 billion — the development bank's green light signals the project is finally moving from paper to construction.
It helps to put 10 GWh in perspective. That's enough battery capacity to equip roughly 150,000 mid-range EVs per year, or to store the daily output of a 2 GW solar farm. Scaling to 100 GWh would make the plant comparable in size to Tesla's massive Gigafactory Nevada, which produced about 60 GWh in 2025.
Gotion High-Tech, headquartered in Hefei, China, and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is leading the project through its wholly owned Moroccan subsidiary. The company accounted for roughly 4.5% of global battery market share in 2025. For context, that puts it behind market leaders CATL (37.5%) and BYD (17.8%), but the gigafactory positions it to capture a growing share of the European and African markets.
Morocco's Strategic Advantage
Choosing Morocco as a manufacturing base is no accident. The country has free trade agreements with both the European Union and the United States, meaning Moroccan-made batteries can largely sidestep import tariffs — a flat 10% duty applies for either destination — and qualify under Western sourcing rules, including the US Inflation Reduction Act's trade-partner provisions.
The location also cuts shipping time and cost to European assembly lines compared to exporting from Asia. Morocco sits barely 14 kilometers across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. A container ship can make the crossing from Tanger Med to Algeciras in under an hour, whereas the sea route from Shanghai to Rotterdam takes about 30 days.
Perhaps most critically, the country holds roughly 70% of the world's phosphate reserves. LFP batteries use lithium iron phosphate as their cathode material, and Morocco's phosphate wealth could one day supply a sizable portion of that input locally, reducing reliance on Chinese supply chains. The Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), the state-owned phosphate giant, has already begun exploring battery-grade phosphate processing, though commercial-scale output remains years away.
Morocco already hosts Renault and Stellantis assembly plants in Kenitra and Tangier, with the latter seeing a €1.2 billion expansion investment in 2025. A trained automotive workforce, deep-water port infrastructure at Tanger Med, and government free-trade zone incentives complete the package. The country produced nearly 700,000 vehicles in 2025, making it Africa's largest automaker.
Batteries as Africa's Missing Link
The AfDB framed the investment around energy access as much as transportation. "Battery storage is the missing link in Africa's clean energy transition," said Kevin Kariuki, the bank's vice president for power, energy, climate and green growth. "A facility of this scale, powered primarily by renewable energy, strengthens the foundations for the large-scale integration of solar and wind power, which our grids increasingly depend on."
Storage is the piece African grids lack most. Solar and wind are cheap to build but useless after dark or in still air without batteries to shift the supply when the sun isn't shining. A domestic source of grid-scale storage cells changes the economics of every renewable project built behind it.
Currently, less than 2% of Africa's installed solar and wind capacity is paired with battery storage, according to BloombergNEF data cited by the AfDB. The continent has some of the world's best solar resources — average irradiation levels in the Sahara exceed 2,500 kWh per square meter annually — yet grid instability and the lack of storage mean much of that potential goes untapped.
Achraf Tarsim, the AfDB's country manager for Morocco, said the gigafactory is expected to strengthen Morocco's industrial competitiveness and accelerate the country's emergence as a manufacturing hub for sustainable mobility in Africa. He described the project as "a major catalyst" for the region.
Job Creation and Local Supply Chains
The first phase is expected to create more than 600 direct jobs while achieving a 70% local industrial integration rate. That integration figure matters most for the continent. A gigafactory that imports every component and merely assembles it builds few lasting capabilities. One that sources most of its inputs locally begins to anchor a domestic supply chain.
The AfDB explicitly tied the deal to "the local beneficiation of critical minerals" — the long-standing ambition to process Africa's raw materials on the continent rather than exporting them and buying back the finished goods. The bank estimates that Africa holds about 30% of the world's critical mineral reserves for battery production, including cobalt from the DRC, manganese from Gabon, and graphite from Mozambique, yet the continent currently processes less than 5% of them domestically.
Gotion is roughly 26% owned by Volkswagen, giving the German automaker indirect exposure to Africa's first gigafactory even as the group wrestles with its own European restructuring and a collapsing Chinese market. That connection could prove valuable for Volkswagen's electric vehicle push in Europe, where the automaker faces mounting pressure from Chinese EV makers like BYD and SAIC. VW's own battery subsidiary, PowerCo, has faced delays scaling its European factories, making Gotion's Moroccan output a potential supply bridge.
Global Competition and Market Context
The gigafactory plans come at a time when the global battery industry is undergoing a shakeout. After years of rapid expansion, overcapacity has driven cell prices down by more than 40% since early 2024, squeezing margins for producers. CATL reported its slowest revenue growth in four years in early 2026, while smaller players like Gotion have sought overseas expansion to offset price pressure at home.
Europe, in particular, is racing to build domestic battery capacity. The European Battery Alliance targets 1,000 GWh of annual production by 2030, but many projects have been delayed by permitting hurdles, rising construction costs, and uncertainty around EU EV demand. Gotion's Moroccan location lets it serve that market from outside the EU's customs border while still reaping the logistical benefits of proximity.
LFP chemistry, which the Moroccan plant will focus on, has overtaken nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) as the dominant cathode chemistry in the EV market, accounting for roughly 43% of global EV battery deployments in 2025, according to SNE Research. LFP's lower cost, longer cycle life, and reduced fire risk have made it the default choice for mid-range and entry-level EVs, as well as grid storage applications.
What Comes Next
Whether the batteries end up in cars assembled on the continent itself is an open question. Africa's electric mobility market is still young and led by two-wheelers rather than cars, with companies like electric-motorcycle startup Spiro scaling fastest. A 100 GWh ambition is a bet that demand — from African EVs, grid storage, and export markets alike — will grow to meet the supply.
The project's timeline has already slipped from the Q3 2026 production start that Gotion's Moroccan head cited last year. But with the AfDB loan secured and additional financing on the way, the path to production is clearer than it has ever been. Ground preparation and foundation work are expected to begin before the end of 2026, with cell production starting in 2027 or early 2028.
Sources: Automotive World, ESS News, Tech Africa, AlixPartners