NIST students develop prototype of eco-friendly vehicle

BERHAMPUR: With an aim to keep their campus pollution free, the students of National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) have developed a prototype of an electric vehicle. The students have used discarded scrap of motor vehicles to put together the prototype of this environment-friendly vehicle that can run on solar power or power supplied from batteries. A team of students of the electrical department of the institute designed this prototype under the guidance of the head of the institute Sangram Mudali. The prototype has been named ‘Sunshine’. Its test runs on the streets of the city astonished the localites as they have not come cross such a new generation vehicle. The vehicle has been designed for transportation in and around the NIST campus.

At present it has been built on the chasis of a discarded autorickshaw. It is being run by eight 12 volts rechargeable batteries. The batteries can be charged from regular power connection or the solar panel fixed on the roof of the vehicle. The controlling devices of the vehicle were totally indigenously designed. But the vehicle has shown much promise as it has the capacity to carry a load of 300 kgs. After charging of around five hours the vehicle would be ready to travel up to a distance of over 40 km. According to the students this vehicle can attain a maximum speed of 45 km per hour.
Source: The Hindu