Vijayawada: SRM-AP students design retrofit electric bike
Engineering students along with the electric bike they have developed, at SRM University-AP in Vijayawada on Thursday
Vijayawada: The students of Mechanical Engineering at SRM University-AP have developed an electric bike. Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Dr Venkata Nori expounded that patent was filed for the design of portable battery mechanism.
He said that the governments worldwide are likely to promote the use of electric vehicles in the coming days as a measure to control air pollution. Recognising this, the students designed a retrofit electric bike using their own technology with the assistance of Amara Raja Batteries Limited.
The students noted that experimental efforts such as replacing the IC engine with a lithium-ion battery and fitting a motor to the rear wheel showed expected results. Currently, petrol-powered two-wheelers are available in the market that could be converted to its fully electric version. The bike is developed by Ravi Teja Reddy, A Chaitanya, Pabolu Mohan Aditya, K Praveen, K Yashaswini, Shravya, Vasu and Priyanka.
The students explained that the battery takes about two and a half hours to charge and costs about Rs 15 per single charge. It can travel 45 km on a single charge battery, 35 km on a two-person journey and a top speed of 60 km per hour. The students said that the bike they designed is low maintenance, fitted with a reverse mode facility and an electric brake.
After two months of hard work, the students succeeded in the vehicle design. The manufactured vehicle was tested in two stages. This bike, which is air- and noise-free, was demonstrated by the students at the university. Vice-Chancellor Prof VS Rao and Registrar Dr Prem Kumar appreciated the students for their novel design. Prof Sujith Kalluri, SRM – Amara Raja Center for Energy Storage Devices, and Dean Prof B V Babu praised the students on their achievement.
Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro Vice-Chancellor has encouraged the students to retrofit e-bike as this has a great societal application. He also motivated Amara Raja Batteries Ltd (ARBL) and got the support for retrofitting of e-bike and congratulated the students.