The IIT Bombay Racing team on Saturday unveiled a new Formula Student electric racing car that can accelerate from 0 to 100 kmph in just 3.5 seconds, and touch a top speed of 111 kmph.
Christened EVo 4.0 Formula Student Electric Car, the car will participate in “Formula Student” competition, an international student motorsport event held annually at the Silverstone circuit in UK in July.
IIT Bombay Racing is an independent student organisation in IIT Bombay, comprising of 75 students spread across various engineering disciplines and united by a common passion to design, fabricate and race electric cars, and participate in the Formula Student competition organised by London-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
The competition is the world’s largest student motorsport events and challenges student engineers to design, build and race single seat racing car in one year. It is also considered a stepping stone for those who want to break into Formula One racing in future. The competition is supported by companies like Mercedes AMG, Petronas, Jaguar, Land Rover, National Instruments, Airbus, and Shell. Over 100 colleges and universities like MIT, ETH Zurich, TU Delft, Stuttgart compete at Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix.
A 37-member IIT team of engineering students designed and created the car from scratch, with the vision of revolutionising electric mobility in India, and focusing on sustainable technologies and innovations.
Participating in the competition for the fourth year, the students improved upon the design and engineering aspects of the prototype they designed last year, and were awarded the Formula Student UK Award 2015 for improvising the previous prototype. An IMechE team presented the award, with a cash prize of £3000, to the thrilled students at the IIT campus on Saturday. The award is given to only three teams out of more than 100 participating teams globally. Team sponsor NRB's managing director Ms. Harshbeena Zaveri was the Chief Guest for the awards ceremony and re- affirmed continued sponsorship to the team.
“Last year, our car could accelerate from 0 to 60 kmph in 2.2 seconds, and this year, EVo 4.0 model can do that in 1.8 seconds. Last year, we had heavier chassis and normal gearbox. This year we have used lightweight aluminium honeycomb chassis, electrical differential, and hybrid planetary gearbox which has made the car lighter and improved its performance,” says Ayush Verma, Marketing Manager of IIT Bombay Racing told The Hindu .
“The car can accelerate from 0 to 100 kmph in 3.5 seconds. This is the quality we want to boast about the most, because it is more important than its top speed, that is an astonishing 111 kmph,” said Pratyush Nalla, the team leader, who has just graduated from the Mechanical Engineering department.
Professor Soumyo Mukherji, Dean of Student Affairs IITB, said that the students have been a completely independent organisation with a clear goal in mind. “From sponsorships, to design and implementation, they have done it all by themselves,” he said.
Faculty Advisor Professor Ramesh Singh of the mechanical engineering department, said the designs and ideas have consistently grown each year, with their concepts of mechanical and electrical engineering getting stronger and stronger.
