Author: Nian Xiaoman, Editor: Chao Yi
As the plane circled, the view outside the window was not the imagined pyramids, but an endless, earthy-yellow haze. The Nile River, like a dark green silk ribbon, lazily cut through this chaotic land.
It takes a three-hour flight from Doha to Cairo Airport. After landing, before clearing customs, you can get a visa on arrival by preparing 25 US dollars. They don't check anything else; just pay the money. Next to the visa-on-arrival counter, you can exchange currency; I exchanged 100 US dollars for 4,670 Egyptian pounds. With the money exchanged, the visa-on-arrival slip, and the immigration card in hand, I smoothly cleared customs, picked up my luggage, and left Cairo Airport.
Cairo Airport was extremely crowded. I couldn't quite understand why there were so many people picking others up here. People of all ages, bringing their whole families, were waiting to pick up arrivals—perhaps this is just Egyptian culture. The hustle and bustle outside the airport was three-dimensional. Car horns blared incessantly and chaotically. Elderly men in white robes or women with black headwraps walked by leisurely, as if the noise had nothing to do with them. The air was a thick mix of spices, hookah smoke, and exhaust fumes, as intense as if a bottle of cheap perfume had been spilled.
Egypt during the Spring Festival is in winter. Although the maximum temperature is around 25°C, waiting for a car outside the airport, I still felt the wind was a bit harsh, so I eventually took out and put on my down jacket. Although Cairo Airport is an international airport, the chaos here is not very international. It is crowded with people everywhere, and the police are arbitrarily driving away locals waiting to pick people up without any apparent reason.
After our tour guide picked us up, we took a taxi to the hotel. The taxi happened to be a BYD. Sitting in a BYD right after landing in a foreign land greatly increased my sense of familiarity. Leaving the airport, we happened to hit the evening rush hour in Cairo. Cars on the road kept honking their horns. Driving here is all about speed and passion, and it always feels like every pedestrian crossing the street is surviving a life-and-death trial.
As the lights came on in Cairo, tall billboards lined the streets. Seeing many luxurious domestic car 4S shops along both sides of the road made me feel both surprised and proud, as well as a sense of closeness. I was surprised to see such a dense matrix of Chinese car brands on the distant African continent; proud that domestic cars have won recognition in foreign markets with their technical strength and cost-effectiveness; and felt a sense of closeness because these familiar brand logos were like lighting a lamp of home on the unfamiliar streets of a foreign land.
Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the core hub for the region's automotive industry development. The rise and fall of its automotive market directly reflect the industrial consumption trends of North Africa and even the entire Middle East.
According to a report by the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) of Egypt, new car sales in Egypt reached 174,000 units in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 69.9%. Among them, passenger car sales reached 134,000 units, up 64%, demonstrating strong growth potential.
According to the author's research, Chinese brand passenger cars have already captured a 37% market share in Egypt, and in the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sector, the market share is as high as 80%.
In contrast, the domestic market has been hit by an unexpected downturn, striking China's NEV industry amidst the sweltering summer. Data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) shows that in May, national retail sales of passenger cars reached 1.51 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 22.1%. This marks the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year decline in domestic car sales. From January to May, the cumulative year-on-year decrease was nearly 20%. NEVs, once the sales driver, were not immune either, with cumulative retail sales dropping 15.1% year-on-year from January to May.
On June 13, William Li, founder and chairman of NIO, issued an industry warning at the Chongqing Auto Forum: "This is the most difficult year since I entered the automotive industry. We need to be mentally prepared for the entire industry to drop by 15% to 20%."
Against the backdrop of collapsing market valuations, slim profits, and cooling domestic sales, "go global or go out of business" has almost become an industry consensus. At this moment, how has the "Chinese wind" swept across Egypt? This undoubtedly provides us with a highly valuable sample for observation and research.
BYD's Momentum Sweeps Egypt: BYD's Market Share Breaks Through 40%, Total Market Share of Chinese Brands Exceeds 80%
What I didn't expect was that throughout the entire trip in Egypt, BYD vehicles were visible everywhere on the streets and in the alleys.
In the early morning in Cairo, the golden sunlight shone obliquely on Tahrir Square. A BYD Qin carried office workers past the obelisk, its windows reflecting the figures of morning worshippers; at noon, beside the Khan el-Khalili market under the scorching sun, a silver BYD Song was charging in the shadow of date palm trees, forming a flowing picture of daily life with the vendors selling hookahs; at dusk, the setting sun by the Nile dyed the river golden. A white BYD Han drove slowly along the embankment, its windows refracting the double silhouettes of the minarets and the setting sun. The continuous taillight at the rear echoed with the outline of the distant pyramids, adding a new energy footnote to the transition between day and night in this ancient city.
On the land of the pharaohs, as the camel bells of the merchant caravans fade into the distance, the new energy wave from the East, with BYD as its sail, is outlining the Cairo skyline together with the millennium-old minarets.
During field research, the author found that BYD's growth history in Egypt is highly synchronized with the pulse of the local automotive industry's development.
The period from 2023 to 2025 is a critical turning point for the Egyptian automotive industry, transitioning from an industry crisis to industrial recovery:
Starting from the end of 2022, systemic industry crises such as foreign exchange shortages, low port customs clearance efficiency, and supply chain disruptions were concentrated and transmitted to the terminal consumption end in 2023, leading to a sharp decline in sales across the entire automotive market, shrinking to the smallest scale in nearly 20 years;
In 2024, to revitalize the automotive industry, the Egyptian government introduced a series of targeted support policies, including prioritizing the logistics processing of automotive imports, gradually relaxing foreign exchange controls, and optimizing the customs clearance processes for complete vehicles and auto parts. The industry supply chain has been continuously repaired, and the previously suppressed consumer demand has been gradually released, resulting in a moderate recovery trend in the market;
In 2025, with the gradual stabilization of Egypt's domestic macroeconomic environment, the substantial alleviation of import bottlenecks in the automotive industry, and the landing of new production capacity based on the long-term development plan of the automotive industry, the market achieved significant sales growth in the first half of the year, and the industry as a whole entered a significant rebound recovery cycle.
According to the author's research, BYD's NEV sales in Egypt in 2025 were approximately 20,640 units, with a market share of about 40%, an increase of approximately 5 percentage points compared to 2024. The key to BYD's rapid increase in sales and market share lies in its differentiated layout in the new energy track, which accurately meets the consumption upgrade needs of the Egyptian market.
At the product level, BYD simultaneously launched a combination of "new energy technology + high-configuration cost-effectiveness"; at the channel level, BYD chose to cooperate with leading local dealer groups in Egypt, prioritizing coverage of core automotive consumer markets such as Cairo and Alexandria, and quickly built a complete service network covering pre-sales, in-sales, and after-sales.
In addition, BYD's brand image in the Egyptian market has undergone a clear phased evolution, from the initial label of an "economical and affordable commuter car" to the current positioning as a "mainstream Chinese new energy vehicle brand" with both technical strength and reliability. Its perception among consumers has undergone a fundamental change.
The key turning point for this brand image transformation was BYD's large-scale promotion and application in the Egyptian taxi market. Initially, many Egyptian consumers equated taxi models with "cheap cars of average quality" and had doubts about their reliability as private cars. However, as time went by, the high-intensity and high-load actual usage scenarios of the taxi operation industry conducted the most thorough market validation of the durability of BYD models. As operational vehicles, taxis often have an annual mileage of over 100,000 kilometers and are long-term used in high-frequency start-stop and congested traffic conditions. Their vehicle quality has withstood the validation of actual operational scenarios, which instead eliminated Egyptian consumers' inherent doubts about their quality.
As of 2025, BYD's brand image in the Egyptian market has transformed into a "trusted new energy family car brand." This upgrade from practical attributes to technical attributes is the key underlying support for its sales leap in the Egyptian market.
Looking at repurchase and recommendation data, BYD's user loyalty in the Egyptian market is equally outstanding. According to the latest user survey data in the Egyptian market by a third-party institution, over 70% of BYD users said they would recommend the brand to their relatives and friends; some users also indicated that they would continue to choose BYD's new energy models when replacing their cars. This data is sufficient to prove the comprehensive competitiveness of its products in the Egyptian market.
Overall, as one of the leading representatives of Chinese NEV exports, BYD has completed the initial stage of transitioning from "product export" to "brand cognition" in the Egyptian market. Subsequently, if it can continuously strengthen its differentiated advantages in the new energy track at the technical level, quickly iterate and optimize detailed issues based on user feedback at the product level, and steadily promote the landing of localized production at the supply chain level, it will have the opportunity to achieve greater market breakthroughs in Egypt and even establish a unique new energy technology brand barrier in the North African region.
Actually, this is just the tip of the iceberg of BYD's globalization process. According to BYD's annual report, BYD's complete vehicle exports exceeded one million units in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1.4 times. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), BYD ranks first in China's NEV exports and has the fastest growth rate among the top ten complete vehicle export enterprises.
At BYD's annual general meeting of shareholders on June 9, Wang Chuanfu estimated that overseas sales in 2026 will break through the initial target of 1.5 million units set at the beginning of the year, and explicitly proposed a long-term goal to strive to make BYD the world's largest automaker by scale within five years.
In fact, BYD is just one part of the map of Chinese automakers competing for globalization. Our research found that in the Egyptian automotive market, Chinese brands represented by Chery, BYD, and SAIC, relying on the rapid iteration of product matrices, pricing strategies tailored to local needs, and long-accumulated reputation, continue to seize the right to speak in the mid-to-low-end market, becoming the core source of incremental growth in the Egyptian automotive market.
Specifically, before 2024, the mid-to-low-end track of the Egyptian automotive market was long dominated by international leading brands such as Chevrolet, Nissan, and Toyota; by 2025, the market share of Chinese automakers such as Chery, BYD, and SAIC MG in the entire Egyptian passenger car market had reached 45%, a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percentage points; among them, in the NEV market, the market share of Chinese automakers has even broken through 80%, making them the most disruptive competitive entities in this track.
On the surface, China's total auto sales continue to hit record highs, but the domestic market actually peaked as early as 2017.
In 2023, auto production and sales first surpassed the 30 million mark. In 2025, cumulative production and sales reached 34.531 million and 34.40 million units respectively, maintaining the production and sales scale above 30 million units for three consecutive years.
However, the new highs in total volume mask the domestic horizontal adjustment. In 2017, domestic narrow passenger car sales were 23.7644 million units (CPCA), after which it entered an adjustment phase. It bottomed out and rebounded in 2020, and by 2025, this figure was 23.744 million units, still failing to break through the 2017 high.
Analysis of Egypt's Macroeconomic Environment and Top-Level Strategy for the Automotive Industry
2030 Export Target of $145 Billion, Automotive Industry Accounting for Over 10%, Localization Rate Exceeding 35%
To accurately judge the long-term development potential of the Egyptian automotive market, it is necessary to first clarify its economic development fundamentals, national industrial strategic orientation, and the policy support logic of the automotive industry. These three elements are the core prerequisites for determining market growth trends and corporate strategic investment decisions.
Currently, Egypt is a leading economy in the Middle East and Africa, and the third-largest economy in Africa. Its economic development trend has a significant benchmark impact on the regional market. From 2022 to 2025, the Egyptian economy went through a complete cycle from crisis adjustment and reform recovery to steady growth. Behind the market performance is the multiple support of economic fundamentals, policy adjustment power, and industrial transformation power.
From the perspective of quantitative indicators, the Egyptian economy has basically repaired the previous crisis impact in 2025, and core data performance far exceeds market expectations:
Economic Aggregate and Growth Rate: According to data disclosed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Egypt's official planning departments, Egypt's nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached $423 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 5%; this growth rate far exceeds the 4.4% in 2024 and is also higher than the general predictions of previous market institutions, marking a strong recovery of the economy from the recent foreign exchange crisis and the impact of global commodity price fluctuations. From a quarterly perspective, the growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2025 reached 5%, setting a new high for single-quarter growth since 2022.
Per Capita GDP Level: Official Egyptian data for 2025 shows a per capita GDP of $3,764, which is the per capita GDP level of China in 2010. From a long-term trend perspective, this data has achieved steady growth compared to the around $3,400 in Egypt in 2023. Residents' actual disposable income levels are gradually recovering, providing basic support for the recovery of auto consumption.
Economic Structure Support: Egypt has a relatively complete system of industry, agriculture, and services. From the perspective of industrial contribution, the core driving force of Egypt's economic growth in 2025 mainly comes from key sectors such as industrial manufacturing, tourism, communications, and Suez Canal shipping; among them, the contribution of the manufacturing industry increased by over 8% year-on-year, becoming the core driving force pulling economic growth. This structural change also provides supporting support for the subsequent development of the automotive industry, especially the expansion of the industrial manufacturing sector, which directly enhances the local supporting capacity for auto parts.
It needs to be specially explained that the strong recovery of the Egyptian economy is not the result of natural market repair, but the direct drive of policy reform. In March 2024, the Egyptian government launched a key exchange rate system liberalization reform, officially canceling the previous fixed exchange rate system of the pound against the US dollar and switching to a floating exchange rate system. This reform released significant market dividends, not only successfully alleviating the foreign exchange shortage that has long plagued the market, but also greatly increasing the scale of foreign capital inflows, providing key support for subsequent economic and industrial recovery.
Currently, the automotive industry, especially the NEV sector, is the core grasp of Egypt's national industrial strategy and the key breakthrough for achieving its goal of becoming a regional manufacturing hub. Relevant top-level policy planning provides clear institutional support and strategic boundaries for foreign automakers entering the Egyptian market.
The top-level and underlying design of all current industrial policies in Egypt originates from the top-level strategic plan of "Egypt Vision 2030 for Sustainable Development." Under this framework, the Egyptian government has clarified subsequent economic growth targets and industrial transformation directions. The core quantitative targets include:
First, growth rate. It is planned that by 2030, the average annual GDP growth rate will be maintained in the range of 6%-8%, of which the manufacturing growth rate must not be lower than 8%. The core of setting this target is to hope to promote the transformation of the economic structure from a single dependence on oil and tourism to diversified manufacturing-driven growth through the rapid growth of the manufacturing industry. Does this goal sound a bit familiar? Isn't it just like China in the past, driving development with the banner of high-speed growth through policy drive?
Second, industrial contribution. Increase export volume to $145 billion and foreign exchange income to $300 billion; among them, the export of automobiles and auto parts must account for more than 10% of the total industrial export volume. The direction of this target is very clear, which is to rely on the scaled export of the automotive industry to optimize the foreign exchange income structure and reduce dependence on traditional oil, gas, and tourism income.
Third, boosting employment. In the future, 7 million to 8 million new jobs will be created, of which the proportion of manufacturing jobs will not be lower than 30%. This target also directly matches the landing needs of the automotive industry, because the automotive industry has a long industrial chain and has a significant employment pulling effect on upstream parts processing and downstream sales and service links.
To implement this goal, the Egyptian government further refined the industrial landing support policies in 2025, with the core being to promote the collaborative model of "private sector-led investment + government supporting incentives." According to official Egyptian disclosure data, this model plans to attract at least $25 billion in foreign investment during the 2026-2030 period, of which the funding scale invested in the automotive industry will not be less than $3 billion; at the same time, this package of policies also clarifies that the subsequent development positioning of the automotive industry should be to become a core automotive manufacturing, assembly, and export base in the Middle East and Africa.
Under the overall framework of "Egypt Vision 2030," the automotive industry is clearly defined by the Egyptian government as the "core strategic growth engine of the manufacturing industry," which is the key grasp for promoting economic diversification and reducing import dependence. The core top-level documents supporting this positioning are the "National Strategy for Localizing the Automotive Industry" launched in June 2022, and the "National Automotive Industry Development Plan" officially released by the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry in October 2025. These two policy documents together constitute the foundation of Egypt's automotive industry policy system.
Specifically, the core goals of these two policies completely match, mainly focusing on the following three cores:
First, expansion of localized production. It clearly proposes quantitative targets that by 2030, the local parts procurement rate of the automotive industry must exceed 35%, the proportion of local value-added must be increased to over 60%, and the total annual scale of localized production must break through 100,000 units; the core direction of this target is to transform the current pattern dominated by complete vehicle imports into a dual-wheel drive model of "import substitution + regional export."
Second, industrial export upgrading. Relying on Egypt's multilateral and bilateral free trade agreement network covering Africa and Arab countries, as well as its unique location advantage connecting the European, African, and Middle Eastern markets, Egypt will be built into an automotive manufacturing and export hub in North Africa and even the entire Middle East region. Automakers are encouraged to use Egypt as a regional production base to export complete vehicles and parts to surrounding markets such as the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Third, breakthrough in electrification transformation. NEVs, especially pure electric models, are listed as the core priority of industrial development. It is planned that by 2030, the proportion of NEVs in the total domestic auto market will be increased to over 10%; behind this target is Egypt's hope to take electrification as a breakthrough to achieve differentiated competition with other regional markets in the reconstruction cycle of the global automotive industry, and even complete an overtaking on the curve of some traditional automotive powerhouses.
To ensure the landing of this strategic goal, the Egyptian government specially allocated 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds of special industrial support funds in the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year budgets to optimize the business environment of the automotive industry and attract the technology and capacity landing of international leading automakers; the use of this fund is very clear, mainly used to support automakers in carrying out local parts procurement, building new energy vehicle-related supporting facilities, and carrying out employee skills training and other key links.
In addition, in the "National Automotive Industry Development Plan" released in 2025, the Egyptian government further refined the incentive policy system, giving additional tax reductions, tariff preferences, and financial subsidies to eligible automakers.
In the overall layout of Egypt's automotive industry, NEVs are given absolute priority in development and are also the core breakthrough for Egypt to achieve the goal of "regional automotive manufacturing hub." The core logic of this strategy is to hope to achieve industrial breakthroughs through the electrification track by taking advantage of the latecomer advantage in the reconstruction cycle of the global automotive industry, rather than engaging in homogeneous competition with global leading enterprises in the mature track of traditional fuel vehicles.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly clearly expressed the orientation of this strategy at a government work meeting in July 2025: "The Egyptian government will spare no effort to promote the localized production of electric vehicles, and can even formulate unconventional and unorthodox preferential plans to attract international leading automakers and supply chain enterprises to land." Behind this statement is Egypt's clear expectation for the new energy industry, hoping to drive the development of local parts manufacturing, supply chain supporting, and export trade through the electrification track, and build Egypt into a new energy vehicle manufacturing and export center in Africa and the Middle East.
Under this strategic orientation, the Egyptian government has also targeted the design of a differentiated policy incentive system. Through the combination of "significantly differentiated tariffs + full exemption of import tariffs," it guides market resources to tilt towards the new energy vehicle track. This preferential intensity far exceeds the policy dividends that traditional fuel vehicles can enjoy, and also constitutes the core underlying logic for the subsequent growth of Egypt's NEV market.
Sailun Tire (601058.SH) announced on June 17 that the company plans to invest in and construct the "Egypt Tire Capacity Enhancement Project," with a total investment of $1.141 billion. Its strategic purpose is to "better meet the needs of customers in Egypt locally and in markets such as Europe and North America."
"Egypt is located at the transportation hub of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Relying on the Suez Canal shipping and a complete port logistics system, the project can further optimize the logistics routes for raw material procurement and finished product sales, reduce transportation costs, and improve supply chain operation efficiency." According to Sailun Tire's forecast, the project is expected to add an average annual operating income of $1.161 billion and an average annual net profit of $170 million to the company.
Comprehensive Comparison of Egypt with Core Markets in the Middle East and Africa
Comprehensively Leading in Policy, Market, and Growth Potential: Egypt is Entering an Epic Growth Cycle
We believe that simply analyzing the Egyptian market is not enough to support the strategic decisions of automakers. Only by comparing it with other core markets in the region can we clearly identify its relative advantages and disadvantages, potential risks, and long-term growth ceiling, and then judge the priority of resource investment.
The Middle East and Africa are two completely different regional markets. There are significant differences in market size, consumer preferences, industrial foundation, and policy environment, so they cannot be directly compared horizontally. In order to provide a more precise reference basis for subsequent market entry decisions, the author selects the leading core markets in the region with similar market attributes, development goals, and market sizes to the Egyptian market as the benchmark. The selection logic covers two cores:
African Regional Benchmark: Morocco and South Africa, the two leading countries with the most complete automotive industry foundation, are selected as the benchmark. These two countries, along with Egypt, belong to the first echelon of the African automotive industry, and both position the automotive industry as a pillar industry of the country. In terms of industrial foundation, market size, and development goals, they have strong direct comparability with Egypt;
Middle Eastern Regional Benchmark: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two largest and most consuming core automotive markets in the Middle East, are selected as the benchmark. These two countries, along with Egypt, belong to the core markets in the Middle East and Africa region, and have certain similarities and direct comparability in dimensions such as market policies, consumer preferences, and industrial development directions.
The subsequent comparative analysis will focus on key dimensions such as the economic foundation, industrial policies, and automotive market size of these three core markets, clearly presenting the positioning, advantages and disadvantages, and long-term growth space of the Egyptian market.
First, let's look at the comparison of the macroeconomic foundation. The long-term development potential of the automotive market is highly related to the core indicators of the economic fundamentals. From this dimension, Egypt's market foundation conditions are in a relatively leading position among the core benchmark markets in the region, possessing stronger market support potential.
According to the 2025 relevant economic data officially disclosed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Chinese overseas embassies, the comparison of core economic indicators between Egypt and other benchmark countries is shown in the table below:
From the above comparison data, the relative advantages of Egypt in the regional market can be clearly judged:
Market Size: Egypt's economic aggregate is second only to Nigeria in the African region, which is the core supporting foundation for the regional auto consumer market. This scale advantage means that Egypt's auto consumption potential is much higher than that of benchmark markets in the African region such as Morocco and South Africa;
Growth Potential: Egypt's economic growth rate is the highest among all these benchmark countries, and the certainty of subsequent growth is also much higher than that of other benchmark markets. The supporting logic for this growth is the effectiveness of the Egyptian government's economic reforms and the rapid recovery of core industries such as manufacturing and tourism;
Cost Advantage: Although Egypt's per capita GDP level is lower than that of benchmark markets such as South Africa and Saudi Arabia, it has a significant population scale advantage. A large number of young labor forces make Egypt's industrial employment costs and basic energy costs significantly lower than those of benchmark markets such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia; this cost advantage has significant attractiveness for the automotive manufacturing industry with the supply chain as the core, and also provides support for subsequent industrial landing.
Of course, there are also certain disadvantages in Egypt's economic fundamentals: compared with Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there are still significant gaps in Egypt's foreign exchange reserve level, residents' average consumption capacity, market openness, and infrastructure maturity; this also means that the short-term incremental scale of the Egyptian market is much lower than that of core markets in the Middle East region such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Next, let's compare the automotive industry policies and development goals again. In terms of industrial policies, Egypt has both similarities and significant differentiated characteristics compared to other core markets in the region. From the perspective of strategic orientation, the development goals of these countries are highly consistent. They all hope to achieve industrial structure diversification and reduce dependence on traditional oil and gas resources by vigorously developing the automotive industry, especially the NEV industry; but in dimensions such as policy details, landing support, and execution intensity, the differences are very significant.
According to public industrial policy documents, the comparison of the core characteristics of automotive industry policies between Egypt and other core markets in the region is shown in the table below:
From the perspective of the actual matching degree of policy orientation, Egypt's policy design has a very high matching degree with the core strategic demands of Chinese automakers, especially export and localized layout; its competitive advantage in the region is very significant, and the core support points are concentrated in the following three aspects:
Differentiated dividends of industrial positioning: Unlike benchmark countries in the African region such as Morocco and South Africa, Egypt's industrial positioning is not solely export-oriented, but a dual-wheel drive of "import substitution + regional export." This layout logic means that the landing investment of automakers in Egypt can not only serve the incremental market demand in Egypt and avoid the high tariff barriers of complete vehicle imports; but also rely on Egypt's free trade agreement network to cover the incremental demand of surrounding Middle East and African regional markets.
Advantages of the actual landing effect of policies: Compared with benchmark markets in the Middle East region such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Egypt's industrial policy orientation is more focused. The Egyptian government's policy support for the automotive industry is not simply financial subsidies or tax preferences, but provides a complete support system covering the whole process of enterprise landing, production, sales, and export; including supporting infrastructure support for enterprise landing, targeted subsidies for local supply chain supporting, and relatively mature industrial foundation support in the region.
Advantages of convenient conditions for export location: Egypt's location advantage is the core key competitiveness that distinguishes it from other benchmark markets in the region. It spans the two continents of Asia and Africa and is an important transportation hub connecting the European, African, and Middle Eastern markets; coupled with the multiple free trade agreements (FTAs) signed by Egypt with the European Union, Africa, Arab countries, and other regions, as well as the shipping convenience of the Suez Canal, it can completely serve as the core hub for regional exports, greatly reducing the logistics costs of enterprises and improving delivery efficiency.
Of course, Egypt's policies also have certain relative disadvantages. Compared with Morocco, the maturity of Egypt's automotive industry supply chain supporting is significantly lower; compared with Saudi Arabia, there is a significant gap in the amount of direct investment by the Egyptian government in the automotive industry and the intensity of user subsidies at the consumption end; this also means that enterprises' landing investment in Egypt needs to bear some extra costs in the links of supply chain supporting and market cultivation.
Comparison of overall market size. Combining the previous analysis data and other public information, the comparison of auto sales between Egypt and other core markets in the region in 2025 is shown in the table below:
Note: South Africa's 2025 NEV sales data only includes pure electric models; the NEV sales data for Saudi Arabia and the UAE only includes pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models.
From the above comparison data, the incremental characteristics of the Egyptian market can be clearly judged:
Overall Market Size: Although the absolute scale of Egypt's new car market is much lower than that of core markets in the Middle East region such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, it ranks second in Africa, only after South Africa, in the African region; considering Egypt's population size, economic growth rate, and the fact that the car ownership level is significantly lower than that of Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, its long-term potential incremental space is the most attractive market in the African region.
Dependence on Imported Cars: Although the proportion of imported cars in Egypt has currently dropped to below 50%, in terms of absolute scale, it is still one of the largest imported car markets in the African region; more importantly, in Egypt's imported car structure, the proportion of NEV models is still at a relatively low level, which means that before Egypt's local car manufacturing capacity matures and scales up, global automakers still have a large space for complete vehicle imports and can obtain short-term market incremental dividends.
NEV Development Stage: Although Egypt's NEV penetration rate is much lower than that of mature markets such as Europe and China, it is in a relatively leading position among the core benchmark markets in the region. Its penetration rate in 2025 is not only higher than that of core markets in the Middle East region such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but also higher than that of benchmark markets in the African region such as South Africa. This means that the user consumption habits, infrastructure supporting, and policy support system in the Egyptian market have initially possessed the market foundation to support the scaled growth of NEVs; the upper limit of subsequent incremental space is much higher than that of other benchmark markets in the region.
Overall, the Egyptian automotive market is in an important window period of high-speed growth and rapid pattern reconstruction. This is also an important strategic opportunity period for Chinese car brands, especially NEV enterprises, to further penetrate the North African market and deeply cultivate the Middle Eastern market with their product, technology, and comprehensive cost advantages. From the perspective of industry trends, there is still much room for improvement in the market share of Chinese brands in the Egyptian market; and as long as leading enterprises represented by BYD and Chery can accurately match the user needs of the Egyptian market, make full use of the policy opening dividends, and effectively control industry risks, they will have the opportunity to establish long-term, sustainable differentiated competitive advantages in the Egyptian market and further consolidate their leading position in overseas markets.
Author's Note
The flow of traffic on the streets of Egypt is a vivid automotive museum of the times. On the crisscrossing city roads, a large number of scarred and peeling old used cars drive side by side. Dented car bodies, aged parts, and wear marks are everywhere, and many models have been out of production for decades. The local road traffic order is loose. In urban streets and suburban arterial roads, neat traffic light facilities are very scarce. People cross the road at will, showing an extensive travel ecology. In the long-formed car usage inertia in the local market, the core standard for vehicle passage is simple and straightforward: as long as the wheels are intact and can drive normally, they can gallop on the streets. A large number of weather-beaten "battle-damaged cars" support the mainstream civilian travel scenarios.
During my trip in Egypt, although I had the highest probability of encountering a BYD when taking ride-hailing cars, what surprised me was that during the investigation, I found that in addition to BYD, a group of Chinese car brands such as MG, Chery, and Jetour have taken root in the Egyptian market in an all-round way, completed multi-dimensional and full-coverage market layout, and completely reshaped the local auto consumption pattern.
Looking back at European, American, and Japanese automotive giants such as Volkswagen and Toyota, globalization is the core pillar of their dominance in the world automotive industry.
For China's automotive industry, 2026 is undoubtedly a historical crossroads.
On the one hand, domestic involution is compressing profit margins at a visible speed. The capital market has already voted with its feet and made a "vote of no confidence." The cost of continuing to fight in the red sea is already unbearable; on the other hand, China's NEVs have already possessed the competitiveness to gallop around the world. Whether it is the leading position of the entire power battery industry chain, or cost advantages, iteration speed, and manufacturing level, any single one taken out is world-class.
But we must also clearly realize that EU tariff barriers, US blockades, and localization compliance requirements of other countries constitute high walls that must be surmounted. The huge investment in building factories overseas, the long cycle of brand internationalization, and geopolitical risks are all swords of Damocles hanging over the heads of enterprises going global.
For Chinese automakers, the bloody battle of globalization has just begun.