Students of R.V. College of Engineering (RVCE) recently unveiled a solar car model that they built. It will be put to the test in the World Solar Car Challenge to be held in Australia next year.
Around 20 students from the college will be taking part in the event, which is an endurance race that will cover 3,000 km in eight days. The race will start in Darwin on October 18, 2015 and end in Adelaide, Australia, on October 25.
Chief Mentor of RVCE Solar Car team and college principal B.S. Satyanarayana said the project gave students the opportunity to study conventional automobile technology, controls, power train and to innovate, besides focus on sustainable technologies.
Cost of the project“The project, from concept to design, development, fabrication, testing, participation and transportation to Australia and back, is being done under tight budgeting. The cost of the car is expected to be around Rs. 2 crore. We have reasonable infrastructural support from the college for design and for part of the fabrication," Mr. Satyanarayana said.
Sharan M., a third-year mechanical engineering student, said, "We would like to showcase India’s potential on the global stage by taking part in this competition. The genesis of the idea to develop a solar car happened in the first semester during our self-study component. The project was approved last year.”
The project is being sponsored by Mahindra Reva, Orb Energy and German company Gocherman.