At the end of December 2019, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (66) took an extra dose of pathos on a stage: A “sixty-year-old dream” is now coming true, he explained when presenting two prototypes the first own electric cars in his country.
With his dream of his own “people” –Electric car Erdoğan is not alone: Germany’s neighbor Poland also wants to start producing its own electric cars. On Tuesday, Electromobility Poland (EMP) presented the first design studies in Warsaw, according to the PAP agency. According to this, the vehicles are to come onto the market under the “Izera” brand and more than half of them will be manufactured in Poland. The planned range was given as 400 kilometers.
On his website Izera specifies the plans: an SUV and a hatchback vehicle with electric drive are planned as the first models. The cars should accelerate to 100 km / h in less than 8 seconds – a value that is fine for conventional vehicles, but rather leisurely for electric drives. The Izera cars will be fast-charging. Several modern assistance systems such as front collision warning, traffic sign recognition or blind spot warning should also be available.
Prices for the cars are not mentioned on the website. They are said to be able to be paid in installments in a press release. As a technology partner, the Poles brought EDAG Engineering, which was founded in Germany and is now controlled from Switzerland, on board. The engineering service provider showed last September at the IAA car show a self-developed scalable floor pan for electric vehicles, which could certainly serve as the basis for the Polish e-mobile.
Russians and Vietnamese also want to build their own electric cars
Electromobility Poland is a foundation of several state energy companies. The company hopes that the first vehicles will come off the assembly line in 2023. According to media reports, the costs until the start of production are estimated at just under one billion euros. The brand name “Izera” is inspired by the Jizera, a tributary of the Elbe in the Czech-Polish border area.
In other countries, too, new manufacturers are trying to position themselves as “Volks” electric car providers. Next the Turkish national car project, which is also supported by a consortium, there are also first attempts in Russia in this direction. The Russian arms maker Kalashnikov announced about two years ago Electric car for civil use on. How serious these plans were and whether they were pursued is currently open.
In Vietnam, the private real estate group Vingroup started producing its own cars under the Vinfast brand – with a conventional drive concept and based on old BMW models. More than half of the Vinfast suppliers are said to come from Germany. Vinfast now wants to offer electric cars for the first time next year and sell them in the USA. The field of new brands in electric cars is growing rapidly.