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Vehicle Technology

  • Green technology: Makers hedge bets on alternative vehicles

    As improved hybrid, clean-diesel, electric and other green powertrain technologies proliferate, manufacturers are investing in the next-generation cars we will drive in five, 10 or 15 years' time.

  • Five students make car for Rs 11,000

    They spent two years sifting through scrapyards to find appropriate material for the car. The creator of the common man's car Ratan Tata might be interested in reading this. Inspired by the cult reality show American Choppers where a father and son team create custom-made motorbike masterpieces out of parts of scrap, a group of five teenagers in Ahmedabad have used otherwise unusable scrap material to create a ready-to-drive four-wheeler for Rs 11,000. The students, Aditya Sen (16), Debanshu Samanta (17), Purna Singh (14), Sukanya Rajgopal (12) and Jaidev Singh (13), who study at Delhi Public School (DPS) and Anand Niketan School, spent two years sifting through scrap yards in the city to find appropriate materials for the car. As opposed to the accepted norm of creating a car design first and building it subsequently, the students had no rough sketch of the vehicle when they started out and built it up according to the materials they could gather. The rear window of the car has been sourced from a Fiat 1965 model. A Kinetic scooter and TVS Scooty's tyres make up the wheels of the car. The petrol tank is an unusable old geyser from a neighbour's home which has been connected to a gutter pipe and stuck with strong adhesive. The tank has a 3-4 litre capacity. A 125cc Honda engine ripped off from a Kinetic scooter is the vehicle's engine. In fact, other than a hydraulic brake, every other component of the car is scrap material. Although the commercial viability of the vehicle is not on the cards at the moment, Aditya Sen said the group had written to Ratan Tata explaining how the car was put together. While RTO regulations prohibit the use of an unapproved vehicle on the road for safety reasons, the car has interested officials of Anand Niketan School who have agreed to fund the groups second venture which is creation of an eco-friendly four-wheeler. "The students are keen to develop a solar-powered car for which I have already ordered solar panels from China which should be delivered within a month,' said Kamal Mangal, head trustee, Anand Niketan School.

  • Minister to press Japan on hybrid cars

    INNOVATION Minister Kim Carr will launch a concerted push to secure production of hybrid cars for Australia when he meets senior executives of Toyota in Tokyo tomorrow. Senator Carr will brief the senior management of Toyota in Japan about the Rudd Government's review of the automotive industry being undertaken by former Victorian premier Steve Bracks. The Government is keen to use its proposed $500 million green car fund to convince Toyota to set up production of hybrid vehicles

  • These diesel hatchbacks badly need an inside' job

    This column was the first to mention that the compressed air powered engine was on its way to Tata Motors, for use in a small car, and now the Tatas have confirmed this in a separate news report. Obviously, it will not be the only engine of choice in the Tata Nano (or any other small motor vehicle being developed by them right now, either), but it will certainly be an option for city taxies and short-run small cargo vehicles. This should, with any luck, convince the armada of environmentalists and greens. And bring the subject of a small vehicle back to the core issue: increased mobility is good for the nation as well as the people. Whether they use public transport as the mainstay or not, is another issue. Which brings me to the next point

  • Energy Minister welcomes first gas-powered car in Maldives

    The driver of the car shows the gas cannister stored in the trunk of the car. The Minister of Environment, Energy and Water Ahmed Abdulla has welcomed the fact that Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was being used to power a taxi for the first time in Maldives.

  • TVS Motor launches electric scooter

    TVS Motor Company on Wednesday launched its first electric scooter

  • Tatas plan hybrid Indica, buses for go green' drive

    After the Rs 1-lakh Nano, Tata Motors is now embarking on another path-defining move to come out with electric and hybrid vehicles in both passenger, including its flagship Indica, and commercial segments. According to industry sources, the company is working on blended fuel, partial and complete hybrids, electric vehicles and hydrogenpowered vehicles, some of which could be commercial ly produced by 2011.

  • Reducing air pollution from urban transport: companion

    Reducing air pollution from urban transport: companion

    This book intends to assist in the design of appropriate strategies for controlling the impacts of urban air pollution, from mobile sources. It considers only the direct air impacts of surface transport, excluding aviation, marine transport, non-road vehicles (such as bulldozers and mining equipment), noise pollution, habitat fragmentation, and waste disposal of scrapped vehicles.

  • Pulp fact: now, paper batteries to power laptops, drive cars

    Washington: Ordinary paper could one day be used as a lightweight battery to power the devices that are now enabling the printed word to be eclipsed by email, ebooks and online news.

  • Device to improve fuel efficiency

    ERODE: An academician-turned-entrepreneur in Erode has claimed to have made a device intended to improve fuel efficiency of petrol cars by about 15 per cent on normal road conditions. S. Nehru, who worked as a faculty in a private polytechnic college, converted his idea into a product at the Technology Business Incubator at Kongu Engineering College here. Technology

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