CAIRO: State-owned El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company, an affiliate of the Holding Company for Metallurgical Industries, has begun testing a number of electric vehicles on Egyptian streets, in cooperation with Uber.
The tests precede the manufacturing of the first Egyptian electric vehicle, the "Nasr E70," according to an official statement by Egypt's Ministry of Public Enterprise Sector.
The production of the Nasr E70 is scheduled to start in the second half of 2022, with a capacity to produce 25,000 cars annually.
The El Nasr company has imported 13 E70 cars from China's Dongfeng Co., as part of a joint venture to produce them locally in El Nasr factories.
These cars will be used to conduct tests on Egyptian roads, to determine the final specifications of the car that will be manufactured there.
The experiment includes nine cars being delivered to Uber drivers, who were trained by a team from the Chinese company to use and charge the electric cars.
The cars will be tested according to specific criteria at a distance of up to 30,000 kilometers per car during a period between three to four months, the ministry said.
