Morocco’s EV Charger Shortage Meets A Fledgling Startup’s Unlikely Early Gamble
Morocco’s electric vehicle market is heating up. Fully electric car registrations nearly doubled in the first seven months of 2026, jumping 99% to 1,213 units. Electrified vehicles now account for 17% of new passenger car sales, up from 10.5% a year earlier.
The government wants 2,500 public charging points by year-end. But this is hamstrung by the reality that about 600 public stations currently exist, with fast chargers—the kind that make long-distance travel viable—still scarce.
Enter watt.ma, Morocco’s first comprehensive EV charging network platform built by a startup, WATTSC, that launched its Charge Point Management System (CPMS) this week. But the catch is that the company isn’t building chargers, but rather, the software for those who do.
The platform lets charging operators, site owners and fleet managers monitor stations, set tariffs, process payments and track revenue through a single interface. Built on the open OCPP 1.6J standard, it works with hardware from different manufacturers, meaning a hotel or shopping centre isn’t locked into one supplier. It also integrates local payment systems, a feature that sounds mundane but matters in a market where international payment rails don’t always fit.
“The challenge of electric mobility is not just about installing charging stations,” said Prince Marfo, a watt.ma spokesperson. “Our focus now is expanding adoption and helping charging operators, businesses and fleet owners build sustainable charging networks,” he told investors.
The startup has backing that lends credibility. It was selected for GreenUp Morocco, an incubation initiative backed by the Ministry of Energy Transition and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. It also participated in the African Youth Climate Hub, the only Moroccan startup in its cohort.
The operator gap
The logic is that as more EVs hit Moroccan roads, more charging stations will be needed. And as more stations get installed, someone has to manage them. Watt.ma is betting that the operator layer—the software that turns a physical charger into a revenue-generating asset—is where value will be captured.
But there’s a tension here that’s worth watching. Morocco’s charging infrastructure remains embryonic. Fast-charging stations cost between MAD 250 K (~USD 27 K) and MAD 400 K (USD 43 K) to install, by some estimates, compared to about MAD 25 K (~USD 2.7 K) for a slow charger. Private sector players like Afriquia and TotalEnergies are moving in, but deployment remains fragmented. BYD’s vice-president recently warned that with only 600 public charging stations, Morocco is slowing down its own electric ambitions.
The platform doesn’t solve the hardware gap. It doesn’t install chargers where none exist. It doesn’t address the fact that vast territories lack reliable charging solutions. What it does is prepare the ground for when, and if, the network scales.
A bet on scale that hasn’t arrived yet
The platform-first model—SaaS fees and revenue-sharing with partners—only works if there’s enough charging activity to generate revenue. With just over 1,200 fully electric cars on the road in the first half of 2026, that’s a small pool. The broader electrified category (including hybrids) is larger at nearly 23,000 units, but hybrids don’t need charging networks the way pure EVs do.
Morocco has set ambitious targets: 60% of automotive exports to be electric by 2030, and a battery gigafactory is in the works, both of which show the industrial vision is clear. But infrastructure lags behind policy, and software platforms like watt.ma are essentially building the operating system for a network that doesn’t fully exist yet.
watt.ma is a solution that is, for now, looking for a problem that’s still emerging. That Morocco needs charging management software is a given. Whether the charging network will grow fast enough to make that software commercially viable before the startup runs out of runway is the conundrum.
