Yavatmal youths claim their car runs 250km on Rs150 hydrogen, plan mass production

Nagpur: Harshal Nakshane, a Yavatmal farmer’s son, claims to have built a hydrogen powered, Artificial Intelligence controlled car. Harshal, a mechanical engineer, and his childhood friends living in Wani, a tehsil place in Yavatmal, have made ‘Sonic One’, a completely made-in-India electric car in their backyard workshop. They claim, one litre of liquid hydrogen, which costs up to Rs150, is enough for this car to run not less than 250km.
Sonic One claims to have better pick-up than fossil fuel vehicles, and a top speed of 200km per hour. The entrepreneurs, who call themselves ‘AiCars’ – claim to have proved these figures ‘on road’. They claim to have registered ‘AiCars’ as a car manufacturer, with Harshal Nakshane as founder and CEO. They aim to begin deliveries of these cars by 2024.
They claim to have recently driven the car from Wani to Nagpur and demonstrated it to Union minister of road transport Nitin Gadkari, who assured them all support to launch their product commercially.
“In school, we were mad about cars and had decided to make a supercar of India someday. I completed my engineering from Nagpur’s Raisoni college with that end in mind,” Harshal told TOI. His childhood friends, Kunal Asutkar, Danish Sheikh, Prajwal Jamdale (now CFO, COO and CIO respectively of the new company), acquired different skills related to car making, and together launched their backyard workshop last year in Wani.
“To make a car was our aim. We were clear that we won’t go for jobs after education. Secondly, we are not going to sell this patented technology to any big company. We will establish our manufacturing plant in Yavatmal,” said Harshal.
Initially, their parents were investors, for the prototype Sonic One that cost Rs25 lakh. The team also claims to have patented two important technologies. First is the way their car gets energy from liquid hydrogen, and secondly, the AI technology that allows driver-less operations.
“We produce hydrogen from diverse domestic resources with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen generates electric power in a fuel cell, emitting only water vapour and warm air,” claims Harshal.
The team claims to have got their first investors from Bengaluru, giving away 5% stake in their company. Their target is to launch their beta build (second edition) in 2023, complete production validation, release candidate build, and begin deliveries by 2024.
FUTURE IN THE MAKING
First to enter hydrogen-fuelled AI electric vehicle market in India
Patented hydrogen technology for on-site green hydrogen development
1 litre of fuel costing about Rs150 will propel car for 250km
Prototype made with investment of Rs25 lakh; mass production will reduce price
Made in backyard workshop, this could be game-changer invention