Less than a month after the decree creating SONACOME (Société NAtionale de COnstruction MÉcanique), another announcement created the enthusiasm of Algerian self-managers by presenting to the local press, on September 23, 1967, at the premises of the coachbuilder El-Mokraniun, the Algerian electric car prototype. The next day, the newspaper El Moudjahid wrote on the front page of its edition of September 24 to 25, 1967: ''Here is the first Algerian car'', and then repeated the declaration of the secretary general of the UGTA, during the presentation of the prototype : ''The Mina 4 is a victory of the workers of the Autogestion''. And yes, the big announcements of the time were in order.
This vehicle with the false airs of Citroën Méhari, is equipped with an electric motor with a fiscal power of 5 Cv with a payload of 300 kg in all-wheel drive. It was designed by eight young Algerian technicians working for the self-managed company El-Mokrani, which should have been the starting point of an Algerian automobile industry, but it was the effect of a wet firecracker and the leaders of the time decided to take another path, that is understandable for a country whose economy is based on hydrocarbons, which we will tell you about soon on COCKPIT.
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