It is a dream come true for 15 students of the RISE Krishna Sai group of Engineering colleges here as they have developed on their own a solar-power electric regenerative car (SERC).
The enterprising group of students from Mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering branches toiled for 90 days after studying various car models, before producing the environment-friendly car which can run at a speed of 60 km for a distance of 240 km with a single electric charge for six hours.
“We made several trials on the streets of Ongole before perfecting the SERC equipped with a DC motor, rechargeable battery and solar panel,” says team leader Sk.A.B.Shareef as the car was rolled out on the campus on Monday in the presence of, among others, colleges group Chairman I.C.Rangamanar and Vice-Chairman Sidda Venkateswara Rao.
“This is not the end. It is only a beginning for developing a driverless car,” adds Shareef along with other team members, for whom college treasurer Sidda Bharat, who successfully runs a granite processing unit, is the inspiration.
“The car gives maximum mileage between 1100 hrs and 1500 hrs every day and can run for four to five hours even during night and during rainy season,'' adds another engineering student Sk.Moulali, who planned to set up a start-up unit to commercialise the car after studies.
The team of students worked under the guidance of Mechanical Head of the Department J.Krishna and M.Sandeep Kumar, the project coordinator from Electronics and Communication Engineering to use power electronics and embedded systems technologies.
The other team members who are involved in the project are T.V.Vasanth Babu, V.Bhuvana, N.Sai Tarun Javahar, B.Sai, Sk.Ghouse Basha, V.Kavya, V.G.Vasavi, Sk.Nazeema, V.Nagaraj, N.Sai Charan, D.Yugandar Reddy, A.V.Sai Krishna and Geetha Vasavi. “This will be the car of the future as fossil fuels are not going to last forever,” they added.
“It can run at a speed of 60 km for a distance of 240 km with a single electric charge for six hours”
