Kerala engg students’ electric car wins award at Shell Eco-Marathon 2022

Designed by Pravega, a team of 19 students from the mechanical stream of the college, emerged as the best, from multiple entries across the world. The students went through various stages of interviews and tests before making it to the achievement.

“It’s truly an accomplishment for us. This project offered us a unique opportunity to utilize and widen our engineering skills to create something which is sustainable and environmentally friendly. Our gratitude goes out to everyone who supported us, especially to Acsia Technologies for their invaluable mentorship as we embarked on this mission,” Pravega team leader Kalyani S. Kumar said.

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It took the team almost ten months to complete the prototype electric car that received much attention from the panel. Vandy weighs almost 80 kgs, with a top speed of 27 kmph.

The vehicle design was based on the biomimicry of Tiger Sharks who are known to eat plastic and other such waste in the sea. The body streamlines trace the form of a tiger shark and are also made from recycled- biodegradable PLA, 3D printed and assembled in a closely stiffened structure format, while the underbody is made from a composite that consists of recycled cloth and glass fiber.

As per details, the electric drivetrain features an innovative battery thermal management system that the team developed using the PCM 1-Tetradecanol, a research paper which has been published in the journal of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments by team Prevega.

Pravega received ample support from Additional Skill Acquisition Programme, Kerala during their programme on Industrial safety held at CSP Mananthavady, and is also supported by various governmental and non-governmental organizations.