The global transition toward electric mobility is accelerating, with electric vehicles (EVs) projected to dominate automotive markets in the coming decades.

Africa, home to abundant mineral resources such as cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, and nickel—key ingredients for EV batteries—stands at a strategic crossroads.

On one hand, the continent risks remaining a mere supplier of raw materials, repeating the extractive patterns of colonial and post-colonial economies.

On the other hand, Africa has the opportunity to build value chains that include battery manufacturing, EV assembly, and eventually full-scale EV design and production.

At the heart of this transformation lies a critical but often overlooked industry: machine tools. Machine tools are the “mother machines” that make all other machines, from automotive engines to battery casings and robotic assembly lines. Without indigenous machine tool capacity, Africa’s ambitions in EVs and batteries will remain stunted. Developing a local machine tool industry is therefore not just desirable but essential for Africa’s push into the EV era.

1. Machine Tools as the Foundation of EV Production

The EV industry depends on precision engineering and advanced manufacturing. Every stage of the EV value chain requires machine tools:

• Battery components: Fabricating casings, anodes, cathodes, and connectors requires precision milling, stamping, and extrusion.

• Motors and drivetrains: CNC lathes and grinders are essential for producing high-performance electric motors, gears, and bearings.

• Chassis and body: Presses, welding machines, and molds are needed for lightweight frames, often using aluminum or composites.

• Electronics and sensors: Specialized machine tools produce housing for chips, controllers, and charging ports.

If Africa lacks local machine tool industries, it will be forced to import not only the EVs themselves but also the manufacturing systems to build them. This perpetuates dependence and undermines industrial sovereignty. A domestic machine tool sector allows African nations to fabricate EV components locally, adapt machines to regional contexts, and reduce the cost of entry into EV manufacturing.

2. From Minerals to Machines: Closing the Value Chain

Africa’s EV potential is rooted in its mineral wealth. For example:

• The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) supplies over 60% of the world’s cobalt.

• Zimbabwe and Namibia hold significant lithium reserves.

• South Africa and Madagascar produce nickel and manganese.

These resources are critical for lithium-ion batteries, the heart of EVs. Yet, without machine tool capacity, Africa exports raw minerals while importing expensive finished batteries and vehicles. This is the classic “resource trap.”

A local machine tool industry could help close this gap by:

• Supporting local battery factories to process mined minerals into cathodes, anodes, and cells.

• Producing equipment for crushing, refining, and shaping minerals into usable forms.

• Manufacturing molds and dies for battery casings and packs.

• Creating spare parts locally, reducing downtime and dependence on foreign suppliers.

In other words, machine tools make it possible to transform Africa’s raw minerals into finished EV batteries—adding value, creating jobs, and retaining foreign exchange.

3. EV Assembly and Local Adaptation

Africa’s automotive sector, though still small compared to Asia or Europe, is growing steadily. Countries like South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana are emerging as assembly hubs. EVs present both a challenge and an opportunity: the challenge of high upfront costs and infrastructure needs, but the opportunity to bypass the fossil-fuel vehicle stage and leapfrog into clean mobility.

A domestic machine tool industry could accelerate EV assembly in several ways:

• Customization: African roads, climates, and energy systems are different from those in Europe or Asia. Locally produced machine tools allow manufacturers to design and adapt EVs to African conditions—such as rugged terrain, unreliable grids, and need for durable batteries.

• Spare parts: EVs require new categories of spare parts (e.g., battery modules, electric drivetrains). Machine tools enable SMEs to produce these parts locally, ensuring long-term maintenance capacity.

• Cost reduction: Importing machine tools or EV manufacturing equipment adds foreign exchange costs. Local capacity reduces these burdens and lowers production costs.

Without machine tool independence, Africa risks being relegated to low-value assembly plants controlled by foreign firms, instead of owning the full EV value chain.

4. Battery Gigafactories and Machine Tools

Several African countries are already exploring battery manufacturing projects. For example, the DRC and Zambia have proposed joint ventures to establish battery plants, while South Africa is eyeing EV manufacturing linked to its automotive base. However, building gigafactories requires more than just mineral supply. It needs advanced precision engineering:

• Mixing equipment to prepare electrode materials.

• Calendering machines for compressing electrodes.

• Winding and stacking machines for assembling cells.

• Laser welding machines for sealing battery packs.

All of these machines are, in essence, machine tools. If Africa depends entirely on imported equipment, these factories will remain foreign-dominated. But if Africa builds its own machine tool capacity, even gradually, it can localize production, reduce costs, and gain technological sovereignty in the battery sector.

5. Skilling Youth for the EV Revolution

A machine tool industry is also a training ground for skills that feed directly into EV development. Operating lathes, CNC machines, robotics, and precision grinders develops expertise in mechanical engineering, materials science, and industrial design. These are the same skills needed for EV production and innovation.

By linking polytechnics, vocational training centers, and universities with local machine tool enterprises, Africa can build a pipeline of skilled technicians and engineers. This avoids reliance on foreign expertise and helps Africa create its own EV ecosystem—from design to production.

6. Reducing Import Dependence and Saving Foreign Exchange

The EV transition could otherwise become another avenue for import dependence, draining African economies. Importing EVs, batteries, and their production equipment could consume billions in foreign exchange annually. A local machine tool industry helps plug this leak:

• Producing machinery locally means fewer imports of expensive equipment.

• Manufacturing parts and components locally saves money and creates jobs.

• Exporting machine tools and EV components could even generate new foreign exchange earnings.

For example, if Nigeria or Kenya produced machine tools for battery pack assembly, they could supply neighboring countries, strengthening regional integration under the AfCFTA.

7. Overcoming Historical Dependence

Africa’s absence in machine tools is partly a colonial legacy. Colonial economies were designed to export raw materials and import finished goods, with no emphasis on building heavy industry. This pattern persisted in post-independence industrialization attempts, many of which failed due to lack of foundational industries like machine tools.

EVs give Africa a chance to break this cycle. By tying the EV push directly to machine tool development, African states can avoid past mistakes of shallow industrialization. Instead of just assembling imported parts, Africa can build the underlying capacity that sustains real industrial independence.

8. Policy Implications

For Africa to seize this opportunity, deliberate policies are required:

• R&D investment in universities to design low-cost machine tools tailored for battery and EV industries.

• Public-private partnerships to build machine tool hubs serving EV and battery SMEs.

• Regional collaboration under the African Union and AfCFTA to pool resources for large-scale machine tool and EV initiatives.

• Strategic partnerships with countries like India, China, or South Korea to transfer affordable machine tool technologies.

• Skill development programs linked directly to machine tool enterprises and EV projects.

The electric vehicle revolution offers Africa both promise and peril. The promise is clear: abundant mineral resources, a growing domestic market, and the chance to leapfrog into clean mobility. The peril is equally real: remaining stuck in raw material exports and foreign dependency.

The deciding factor will be whether Africa builds a local machine tool industry. Machine tools are the bridge between mineral wealth and industrial sovereignty. They enable the production of batteries, the assembly of EVs, the creation of spare parts, and the training of a skilled workforce. Without them, Africa’s EV dreams risk being outsourced; with them, the continent can write its own industrial future.

In short, a locally developed machine tool industry is not just helpful but essential for Africa’s EV and battery ambitions. It is the foundation upon which the continent’s clean mobility revolution must be built.