27-year-old Jerry Issac Mallo has made history for creating Nigeria’s first carbon fiber luxury car known as the Bennie Purrie.
Mallo, the CEO of Bernie Technologies, always had an interest in cars. As a child, he would make toy cars from scraps and by the time he was 18, he reportedly built a car made out of recyclable materials.
After studying engineering briefly in the United Kingdom, he went back home after he was presented with the opportunity to make cars.
He introduced the world to the Bernie Purrie in 2019 and has only taken off from there. The luxury vehicle is equipped with four radiators to keep the interior cool, and tubular chassis to handle tough roads.
The bright red two-seater sports car is made out of carbon fiber material, which is known to be stronger and lighter than most steel and aluminum. It also has Gull-wing doors – a specially designed door first used for the 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL race car.
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The first model of the car can travel from 0 to 120 miles per hour in 12 seconds and has a 2.0-liter engine that produces about 130 horsepower.
“Africa is a very big market for luxury vehicles. I got that exposure when I was in studying in [the] UK. We learned that making the car is just half of the challenge. Selling it is the other half. Africa is usually the target place to sell these vehicles. So, I feel there’s a big market for it here,” said Mallo
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