25 Year of Jeep in Egypt

A joint venture was established in 1977 between AOI (The Arab Organization for Industrialization) and what was then AMC (American Motors Corporation), who owned Jeep: thus AAV was born. The company first produced vehicles in 1978. Later, in 1987, Chrysler Corporation acquired AMC, because they wanted the Jeep brand. With that acquisition came several assembly plants around the world, including the one in Egypt. AAV is 51% owned by AOI and 49% by Chrysler.

The first car to be manufactured by AAV was the CJ6, a military vehicle, in 1978. Its demand translated into close to 12, 000 CJ versions to be built between 1978 and 1986. Then came the Wagoneer, in 1991, which continued its run for the following six years. In response to AAV's desire to manufacture a more modern vehicle, in 1992, the production of Jeep Cherokees (the XJ model) was launched.

By 1995, The Chrysler Corporation was unsure about what to do in the future in Egypt: the 20-year joint venture agreement was going to expire at the end of 1997. After much research and discussion, a verdict was reached: they renegotiated the agreement and signed, taking back their distribution rights; and reopened under Chrysler Egypt. At that point, the decision was reached to import other vehicles and carry on with the development within AAV. In 1998, Daimler-Benz and Chrysler merged to become DaimlerChrysler.

Production at AAV started with a capacity of 4,000 vehicles per year. Today's annual volume has reached 16,000 vehicles. Production capacity is 17,600 units per year, on a single shift operation. The vehicles are manufactured with a minimum of 45% local content, as per Egyptian legal requirement. Local content suppliers are developed and monitored, using the DaimlerChrysler Quality and Acceptance procedures.

Taking The Past Into The Future
The company has recently spent over 24 million dollars upgrading the facilities. There was a 62% expansion on the size of the facility, alone, including the installation of its test track.