The Hindu : New Delhi News : A green solution to pollution blues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 28, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

A green solution to pollution blues

Staff Reporter

GREEN CAR: The Delhi College of Engineering team with `The Fledge', the car with near zero emission in urban driving conditions. It was flagged off by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from her residence in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI: In what might just be the perfect "green" solution for an increasingly polluted world, seven mechanical engineering students of the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) claim to have invented the country's first gasoline-electric hybrid car.

Named "The Fledge", the DCE hybrid car was flagged off by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday from her residence. The new model will participate in the annual green car festival organised by the North-East Sustainable Energy Association of the United States this coming May.

The model was worked on by a team of sixth semester students -- Abhinav Bhatia, Abhinav Duggal, Abhishek Agarwal, Anubhav Jain, Ashish Dudani, Nitesh Gupta and Siddharth Arora.

Describing it as a green car with near zero emission in urban driving conditions, DCE says the vehicle can be made commercially viable as besides being fuel-efficient it will also be affordable for the common man.

"Necessity is the mother of all inventions and the mounting burden of petroleum prices on the common man had kindled a spark in the DCE students to unearth this new technology with a revolutionary drive train," said Abhishek Agarwal, the leader of the seven-member team.

A 200-Ah lead acid battery with a 1.3 litre fuel tank will provide the energy storage system. Power transmission in the car occurs on the engine as well as the motor mode providing the user with the option of switching to either mode at any point of their journey.

A powerful 18 BHP, 346 cc engine along with a 3.5HP, 3000 rpm permanent magnet DC motor serves the very purpose.

Made with the support of the Central Department of Science and Technology and Mahindra and Mahindra, `The Fledge' will compete with 55 other participants at the "TourDeSol" competition.

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