This electric car developed by Kerala students wins global acclaim

A group of 19 students from Kerala has built an electric car that has won accolades and awards at global competition. The electric car, called Vandy, was one of the EVs to win an award at the international energy efficiency competition, Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) 2022, held in Indonesia recently. It also received honourable mention for the International Award for Technical Innovation and International Award for Safety from Dupont. The students from Thiruvananthapuram, who built the EV from ground up, belong to the Government Engineering College Barton Hill's mechanical stream, with the mentorship of Acsia Technologies.

The team of 19 students, called Pravega, was one of the five teams that qualified from India for the international level of the event. The electric car that the students built weighs around 80 kgs, seats only one and has a top speed of 27 kmpl. It took them almost 10 months to complete the prototype electric vehicle.

The students based the design of the Vandy electric car on the biomimicry of Tiger Sharks. It appears like a capsule and has three wheels, two at the front. The EV comes equipped with an electric drivetrain that has an innovative battery thermal management system developed using a research paper published by them in the journal of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments.

The Vandy electric car is also equipped with safety features which include driver drowsiness detection system. The system uses non-intrusive sensors which utilises Artificial Intelligence to check if the driver is fit to drive and act accordingly.

The students received help from R Bind, Minister for Higher Education in Kerala to receive grants and other government schemes. Kalyani S Kumar, Team Leader at Pravega, said, "It's truly an accomplishment for us. This project offered us a unique opportunity to utilise and widen our engineering skills to create something which is sustainable and environmentally-friendly." Jijimon Chandran, founder and CEO of Acsia Technologies, said, "As a mentor, we are proud to have guided the students from the college in creating an electric vehicle that embodies this value."

The Shell Eco-marathon is an international competition where students from various countries design, build, and test cars, both ICE and electric, with high mileage.

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