Automotive News Europe — 2026-07-06
Automotive Industry
The European auto industry is in the midst of a fierce debate over local-content rules to counter the threat from low-cost Chinese cars, but just a few miles across the Strait of Gibraltar from southern Spain, Renault Group has prepared its own response.
At the Dacia factory near Tangier, Morocco, a low-cost ecosystem builds and ships Europe’s most popular car, the Dacia Sandero, to hundreds of thousands of buyers a year. More than 100 suppliers, including dozens of Tier 1s, are clustered around the factory in free-trade zones, while a direct rail line transports cars straight to the loading dock at the state-of-the-art Tanger Med port, the world’s 17th largest.
From there, it’s three days or less to nearly any European country, either by direct ship or by ship then truck.
Dacia CEO Katrin Adt said in an interview that Morocco is at “the heart of the brand,” adding that her first trip there — just two days after starting in her job in September 2025 — was to visit Dacia’s operations.
Adt declined to give production costs in Morocco but said “of course, we have a great competitiveness.”
“We have the suppliers, we have the workforce, we have a very good relationship with the government and it’s somehow easy to do business there,” she said June 30 at a media event for the new Dacia Striker in Milan.
Renault’s ecosystem in Morocco relies less on technology such as AI and robotics than on proximity, seamlessness and operational efficiency. Supply chain, production and logistics are so tightly intertwined that a car can go from raw materials to finished product to a European showroom in a matter of days.
“The site is inextricably linked to the success story of Dacia,” said Charles-Edouard Thiout, deputy director of the Tangier factory, on a media visit to the factory and port.
Morocco has lowest labor cost per vehicle, study finds
The Sandero starts at €13,290, making it Europe’s cheapest car in several markets. The price is possible because of Dacia’s design-to-cost strategy and use of long-since-amortized components from the Renault and Nissan parts bins.
But the production site in Morocco also plays a huge role. According to a study by Oliver Wyman, the labor cost per vehicle in the country in 2024 was $106. That compares to $273 in Romania – where Sanderos used to be built and where Dacia makes the Duster and Bigster SUVs. In third place was Mexico at $305, and in fourth at $414 was Turkey, Dacia’s third factory base.
In contrast, the Czech Republic was at $691 and Spain was at $955; France was at $1,569. Germany’s cost per vehicle was $3,307, although the figure is influenced by a focus on premium cars, which are more complicated to build.
“Morocco has become the low-cost production center for French manufacturers, much in the same way the Detroit 3 automakers have operated out of Mexico for the past 40 years,” the Wyman study said.
Renault has a second plant in Casablanca, where it builds some Sanderos, the Logan and the Renault Kardian; Stellantis’ factory in Kenitra assembles the Peugeot 208 and the Citroen Ami, Opel Rocks-e and Fiat Topolino electric quadricycles.
100 years in Morocco
Renault’s history in Morocco dates to 1928 when it began selling cars there; in 1959 it took control of the Casablanca factory, which had previously assembled cars for a number of brands. In 1966, it began building the Renault 4 there.
The Tangier factory opened in 2012 and now has an annual capacity of 380,000 cars; Casablanca’s capacity is 120,000, and Morocco is now Renault’s second-largest production center after France. In 2025 nearly 400,000 Renault Group cars were built in Morocco, about 300,000 in Tangier and 100,000 in Casablanca — or about one in every six sold worldwide.
More than 80 percent are exported, including 90 percent of Tangier production, most to Europe.
That has made Renault the largest company in Morocco, where it accounts for 3 percent of the country’s GDP, said Mohamed Bachiri, managing director of Renault Group Morocco. Annual turnover is about €15 billion.
“We are not just an automaker. We are the heart and the face of the industry there,” Adt said, who added that she feels a “social responsibility” because of Renault’s prominence in the kingdom.
Now the Tangier factory is preparing to build the next generation of Sandero, expected around 2028, which will have a battery-electric drivetrain option and require significant investment, Adt said.
The plant’s future seems bright, but a cloud is looming in the form of the EU’s proposed “Made-in-Europe” initiative in the Industrial Accelerator Act, which would require that 70 percent of an EV’s value originate in Europe for it to be eligible for government incentives or procurement programs.
ACEA, the European auto lobbying group, has thrown its weight behind a proposal that would include Morocco’s installed capacity in the European perimeter for the purposes of the IAA. That could make further expansion less attractive but would preserve the existing footprint.
“We don’t know yet if Morocco is in our out. We don’t know the consequences of such a rule,” Adt said. “It’s difficult to say. It’s not something we want to give up on."
Biomass from olive pits and wind energy power factory
A visitor to the Tangier factory, set among dusty hills about 35 km southwest of the city, immediately notices a difference from factories in Western Europe: There are almost no robots; some 6,000 workers assemble Sanderos, Joggers and Renault Express vans (based on the old Dacia Dokker) largely with electric hand tools.
Still, the Tangier factory is among the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Renault Group. About 90 percent of its power is renewable (the remainder is natural gas), mostly from 3,000 wind turbines set on the surrounding hills; other sustainable energy comes from an innovative biomass burner that is fueled by olive pits, another Moroccan specialty, as well as pallet wood.
Despite the absence of robots, the factory is on the cutting edge in other areas. It is connected to Renault’s industrial “control towers” in Flins, near Paris, where supply inflows, production and machinery such as stamping presses are monitored remotely and issues can be addressed in real time.
Cameras with artificial intelligence are used to verify the state of wheels and tires after final assembly.
From the factory, cars are given a short test drive then parked atop a small rise for transport by rail to the Tanger Med port, Africa’s largest, where more than 500,000 vehicles (mostly exports from Renault and Stellantis) passed through in 2025.
Local sourcing and integration targets
Renault’s presence in Morocco also strengthens the kingdom, which has worked to build Africa’s largest automotive industry in the past two decades.
Renault has signed a series of ecosystem agreements with the kingdom, starting in 2016, which have targets for local integration and sourcing. The second agreement, signed in 2021 and which runs until 2030, requires 75 percent local integration and €2.5 billion in local sourcing.
About 10,000 people now work for Renault in Morocco, a number that is growing and becoming more skilled thanks to IFMIA, a training center at the ier factory that opened in 2011 and is administered by Renault.
Like Adt, Renault Group CEO Francois Provost chose Morocco for his first trip abroad after being named CEO in June 2025. On a visit to the kingdom in late October 2025, he signed an agreement to create an additional 7,500 jobs and noted that Renault had exceeded its commitment on local sourcing.
He also inaugurated new R&D and digital technology centers, thanked the kingdom for its support, and noted that Renault and Dacia had about 40 percent of the Moroccan domestic market.
“Morocco plays a special role for Renault Group,” he said.