Students from IIT Bombay have developed India's first electric racecar, called EVo 1, to compete in the 2012 edition of the Formula Students Competition in the UK. The car is radically different in terms of powertrain over its predecessor, because instead of going the conventional way and powering it with an internal combustion engine, the students have opted to construct a completely electrically-powered car.
The car stores its energy in lithium-ion polymer batteries placed just aft of the driver, and the rear wheels are driven by two motors via a mechanical differential. Plans are already going strong for the next version of the car, dubbed EVo 2, where the electric motors will be used independently via an electronic differential.
Over 60 students from different disciplines of engineering like mechanical, electrical and energy science came together to develop the car. From the brief once-over we could give the car, we could spot remarkable ingenuity: the brakes, for example, are humble motorcycle disc brakes. The car cost Rs 15 lakh to develop, and a conventional powertrain would have brought the cost down to Rs 12 lakh. However, the student decided to go with an electric drivtrain with a nod to future technologies of motoring.
