KARACHI: A team of students have taken it upon themselves to bring electric cars on our roads, and their prototypes don’t look so bad either.

Team National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan Navy Engineering College (PNEC), comprising 35 undergraduate engineering students, have been designing and manufacturing formula-styled electric vehicles since 2016. Their first car that participated in the Formula SAE electric race car competition in the USA in 2016, where some 29 other teams were also competing, stood 18th. Now their second car will be competing in the IMechE Formula Student 2018 to be held in the UK from July 11 to 15.

About what’s different between the two cars, team manager Taha Rizvi, a final-year electrical engineering student, explained to Dawn that the second one is an improved model. “We have made many improvements to the original. For starters, the new edition weighs less,” he said.

“The old one had a fibreglass body but this one has a carbon fibre body, which weighs far less, making it faster. We have also made changes to the battery kit specifications and the motor is running more smoothly now,” he added.

About next month’s competition, on the Silverstone Circuit in North­amptonshire in England he said that it will be a far bigger competition than the one in the USA two years ago. “There are going to be 97 teams competing,” he said.

“Right now we are just concentrating on our car and us getting there with it for the event,” he laughed nervously. “That too takes up a lot of work. We have to come up with the funds as well and not just for the car, it is also to get to the UK,” he said.

Asked about how much the car cost them from beginning to end, the team manager said that he can only provide an estimate which comes to something between two to three million in Pakistani rupees.

Azka Jawed, marketing member of the team, said that even though appreciation for formula student competitions is gradually rising in Pakistan, the teams find it very difficult to find sponsors for the event. “There is not a lot of acknowledgement regarding the importance of engineering competitions and most companies shy away from supporting such ventures” she said. Still, she said that her team was grateful for the support they have got already.

Meanwhile, team leader Shariq Waqar said that their previous car happened to be the cheapest in the Formula SAE Electric 2016 competition in USA. But he said that they have worked more on the new model.

“That’s how it is,” pointed out team manager Rizvi. “The student-run project is being improved more and more. One NUST-PNEC batch came up with the first car, another batch came up with the improvements and innovation. The next batch will pick up from where we left. And like this our country will soon move towards tried and tested electric cars,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018