It’s a moment in the sun for Manipal University students. A team of 27 students from Manipal Institue of Technology in Karnataka have developed a snazzy solar-powered car. The car’s name, SERve, is a smart short form for Solar Electric Road Vehicle, NDTV reports.
While, environmentalists would dig this invention, one is yet to see if a 590 kg car that can reach a speed of 60kmph is commercially viable.
Solar-powered cares are rare, as is, but the good news is that we seem to be moving towards increasingly affordable green options.
“There are not many solar cars present in the world right now. This, I think, is one of the three solar cars, passenger solar cars which are there in the world. The thing is we have tried to optimize the total cost of the manufacturing of the project. So, we’ve done it within Rs. 25 lakh. We consider that as an achievement,” Jeet Bannerjee, leader of the team of students, told NDTV.
With the help of Tata Power Solar, who provided the panels for the initiative, the students managed to curve and fit the panels in an efficient manner, with respect to aerodynamics.
“The car needs very light weight and high efficient modules in a very aerodynamic structure and that services we have provided to them,” said Ashish Khanna, The Executive Director and CEO of Tata Solar Power told NDTV.
“Our support has been to motivate them, give them the module side, the energy side complete solution to them and work with them because their requirements were also changing as and when they were innovating,” he added.
Here’s a video of the innovative students putting the car together, in its earlier stages.