(Ecofin Agency) - PSA Peugeot Citroën will soon commission in Morocco an OpenLab dedicated to research on green energies and electric vehicles in Africa. Sustainable Mobility for Africa is the laboratory’s name. It will function on the open innovation principle which favors the sharing of knowledge and results.

Associated to this laboratory are five Moroccan universities, two American universities with representation in Morocco, Central Casablanca – French-Moroccan technician school – and a technology transfer center which is affiliated to the International University of Rabat. According to PSA, the lab will develop over four years, a research program on the exploration of sustainable mobility systems based on three main points: renewable energies, cars of the future and logistic of the future.

Similar laboratories have already been established by the French car dealer in Europe, Asia and South America. It however decided to experiment in Morocco after implementing its first factory in Africa, still in Morocco. The factory which is to begin activity in 2019 costs €560 million and is to produce 90,000 cars each year.

Gwladys Johnson