Northern Cyprus, a de facto state identifying itself as a part of Turkey, hopes to establish its own automotive industry by producing Gunsel B9, a subcompact-sized electric car designed by the Near East University. The brand is named after Suat İrfan Günsel, a businessman and its lead sponsor. The university first revealed the 3.6-meter long three-door hatchback last November and has now shown it to the Turkish Minister of Industry.
The Gunsel B9 looks like a mashup of
elements scavenged across the board, but the developer team sheds no light on
their origins. The hatchback sports a body made of composite panels mounted on
a stainless-steel tube-frame chassis. The one conspicuous detail we cannot
unsee is the headlights obviously taken from a first-gen Audi Q3.
A single rear-mounted electric motor has
163 PS and gets the subcompact from zero to 100 km/h in eight seconds and ultimately to 170 km/h. A lithium-ion
traction battery grants it 350 kilometers of range on a charge.
The factory that will produce the Gunsel
B9 is currently under construction, and the assembly is scheduled to begin next
year. The company plans to piece together just 1,000 units during the first
production year and then gradually increase the volume to 20,000 annual units.
An all-electric crossover SUV named J9 is
slated to become the marque’s second car. It only exists as a full-size mockup
at the moment, and production is tentatively penciled in for 2024.
