Solar car designed by students popular at Auto Expo

“We call this an aerofoil design,which offers minimum resistance to air,making the car aerodynamic and faster. It is a common design followed by many prototype solar cars,” said Nikhil Gupta,a third-year student of Instrumentation and Control and team leader.

Last year,Gupta was part of another team of engineering students from his college that designed an earlier variant of this car,‘Advay I’,which participated in the South-African Solar Challenge-2008,and came third. Since then,Gupta has formed a new team that has been fighting budget constraints and beating deadlines to get the car ready in time for the Auto Expo. The car,five metres in length,has an interior made of aluminium and an outer body of carbon fibre-reinforced sheets and polyurethane foam mixture that reduces the weight of the car to 380 kg.

“Though light,the car is durable and sturdy,” said Puneet Kumar Upadhyay,third-year student and technical advisor for the team.

The most important part of the car’s design were the solar panels,custom designed by an Indian firm for the project. A total of 384 solar cells are spread across the solar panel sheets on the car’s body,which allows the batteries to generate 960 W of power to allow the car to run effectively at a speed of at least 60 km/hr. At one go,the car generates 1.1 KW of power,enough to power the average geyser.

“The solar panels need to be charged for 10 hours every day,depending on usage. On days when there is no or less sunlight,the charge converter uses the stored energy to run the car,” said Upadhyay.

The car costs a whopping Rs 14 lakh,of which the solar panels cost Rs 2.5 lakh. The team managed to pool in Rs 3 lakh from their personal funds for the project. “We borrowed from friends and family,” says Gupta.

While the car is ready,the team agrees that significant improvements are needed to make it viable. For instance,the lead-acid batteries in the car are heavy and not as energy-efficient as lithium-ion batteries. But the latter cost Rs 2 lakh and are not easily available.

“Right now there are not many R& D facilities for testing a solar cars in the country. When cheaper solar cells arrive in the market,the cost of the car will go down,and the design can be commercially viable,” said Gupta,who is in talks with a few car manufacturers to improve their designs.

For now,the team is preparing to enter their car in the North American Solar Challenge in Texas,USA,in July.

Fire on Wheels: If you were looking for ways to beat the Delhi traffic,Trek bikes are offering you the Equinox TTX 9.8 SSL time-trial bike that costs Rs 2.4 lakh. Though the price is steep,its frame is made up entirely of carbon fibre including the tyres. Light weight and easy to carry,the cycle can be easily dismantled. On Thursday,this was a major crowd-puller at Hall No. 7 of the Auto Expo.

Electric scooter for disabled: BSA Motors launched India’s first electric scooter for the differently abled. At Rs 35,000 (on road price) the ‘Roamer Able’ scooter is factory-fitted with side wheels on either side,which have independent rear wheel suspensions. There is also a feature for reverse parking and the scooter can attain a maximum speed of 40 km/hr. It will travel a maximum of 50 km before you need to charge it again.