General Motors and Al Mansour Automotive could partner up to produce electric vehicles in Egypt under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies yesterday, Mansour Auto Chairman Mohamed Mansour told Reuters. The companies will assess production requirements, sales volumes, and the incentives that are on offer, and will produce a study to put to the government within the next 2-3 months, he said.

Incentives are coming: The government is finalizing the incentives it plans to offer the local industry under its long-delayed automotive strategy, and will announce them before the end of the year, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly told representatives from the companies yesterday, according to a statement.

Details on the incentives are few and far between: The statement gave no details on what the incentives actually are, but previous drafts suggested it could offer manufacturers customs discounts linked to the percentage of locally-produced components they use as well as introduce a new value-added rule to calculate domestic components used when deciding whether a car qualifies as locally-made. The Public Enterprises Ministry said last month that it could provide buyers of locally-made EVs subsidies worth up to EGP 50k.

An earlier tie-up in the industry broke up last month: Plans for state-owned El Nasr Automotive to link up with Chinese auto giant Dongfeng to locally assemble EVs fell through last month when the state-owned firm exited talks after being unable to negotiate a lower price point for imported components. El Nasr is searching for a new partner and has received 13 proposals from European and Chinese auto companies, the company’s managing director told us recently.