KARACHI: Pakistan Navy Engineering College-National University of Science and Technology (PNEC-NUST) on Monday unveiled the two energy-efficient vehicles built by their students for participation in the forthcoming Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) to be held in Singapore from March 16 to 19.

The four-day public event will feature student teams from all over Asia with bright energy ideas and solutions that address the global energy challenge. Eight teams will be participating from Pakistan this time. Students are encouraged to develop innovative mobility solutions through engineering, design, science and technology to build and drive the most energy-efficient vehicle.

Team PNEC-NUST, which has been competing in the event since 2009 and even won the prize in the category of ‘Communications’ in 2014, is very confident about both their entries doing well in Singapore.

There is the conventional ‘urban concept’ Rebolt 2.0 and the futuristic three-wheeler ‘prototype’ Nawah. The urban concept car weighs 110kg and boasts of a mileage of 120km/l and the prototype weighs 75kg and can do 100km/l. The aerodynamic shape also helps increase the efficiency of the cars. Both car bodies are made of carbon fibre that has also helped reduce the weight of the vehicles.

The contest has just these two categories. But the cars can run on gasoline, diesel, ethanol, gas-to-liquid, CNG, hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric power. NUST’s prototype runs on CNG.

Last year, the team from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology ended up seventh, which was a great achievement for Pakistan. Unfortunately, Team PNEC-NUST could not participate last year due to lack of funds. The students weren’t able to raise enough money to be able to go to the event.

Not only are the students expected to build the cars, they also have to raise the money to build the cars as well as get to the event since they also need to learn how to market their inventions. So they have to manage their projects from start to finish, from vehicle design to financing.

That’s why each team has more teams within them assigned to take care of management, marketing, engineering, etc.

“There are 16 of us,” the urban concept car team manager Khwaja Hamza, a final-year student, told Dawn. “And being the manager I am responsible for logistics, buying airline tickets, distribution of tasks, providing updates and the like,” he added.

Rear Admiral Dr Nasser Ikram SI(M), commandant, PNEC-NUST, wished the team well and said that he sees a lot of potential in the students and was sure that they would uphold the standards of their mentors in Singapore.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017