Engineering college students build Rs 4 lakh electric car

HYDERABAD:  In a bid to reduce vehicular pollution a team of 23 students from Pallavi Engineering College Nagole, Hyderabad have developed an electric vehicle. The team was led by Dr R. Viswanthan, Krishnaveni and Rahul Patil of department of Mechanical Engineering of the Institute and Mr P. Anil Kumar from ECE.

15 students from mechanical and eight from ECE were part of the team which collaborated with Paramount Auto Bay Services (PABS), Secunderabad. It took the students seven months and `4 lakh to develop the 500 kg heavy fully electric car. It takes five hours fully charged to reach 38km and has a range of speed 30kmph.

The capacity of the vehicle is four members. This is a four-wheeled vehicle with suspension and differential work on electricity (batteries, rotor and controller). The main objective of the design is to make a car that can work on electricity, easily driven, durable as well costfriendly. The material used for the electric vehicle chassis is mild steel C channel (low carbon 1 inch hollow pipes, for body aluminum sheet of 1.5, 0.8 mm thickness).

Macpherson strut with lower control arm and leaf spring with damper is used as suspension system. The steering of the mechanism used in the vehicle is rack and pinion with the ratio of 12:1, and the turning ratio is 2.8M and the braking system used is Drum brake with mechanical actuation. In order to keep our environment pollution free and healthy, there is a need to explore alternatives to fossil fuels.

In order to explore opportunities with an electric car, they aimed to design a motor and battery-operated kart. As a result, chassis has been designed in a way to reduce vibration, increase strength and optimise the weight of the chassis. Pallavi Engineering College (PEC) is managed by Malka Komaraiah, who has 25 years of experience in running schools and colleges. He is the pro-chairman of Delhi Public Schools in Nacharam, Nadergul and Mahendra Hills.

Specs of the e-car
The battery voltage of the electric vehicle is 48v and battery is lead acid battery, 48v DC motor controller, and power: 3KW @3600 rpm, torque produced 9-8 N-m, rated torque 32N-m, motor power-4HP