Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur) student has designed a model of a compact electric car which can be extended at the rear end to make a second seat. The car is designed with an aim to solve the problem of traffic congestion and decreasing road space.
The car has a single seat and is especially designed for the office-goers who drive alone, rarely using the entire seating capacity of the vehicle. Such road users unnecessarily occupy the space on the streets during the busy morning and the evening hours.Kumar Sudeepta, an MDes student of IIT-Kanpur, has designed the prototype of the electric car. He had kept his vehicle on display at the recently concluded annual design exposition.
Sudeepta has said that the vehicle named as Growing Electric Vehicle (GeV) is a front wheel-powered battery-propelled four-wheeler. He said that GeV is designed on the lines of green urban transportation, addressing the problems of congestion, parking and wastage of road space. He also explained that the car is meant for the growing one-tier and two-tier cities in India, where individuals use vehicles to commute to offices alone, rarely using all the seating capacity. Too many vehicles on the roads also result in traffic jams. More the number of vehicles, more will be the emission of the harmful gases. Thus, this electric vehicle has the potential to address all these problems in one go.
Furthermore, he added that GeV is a compact vehicle meant to carry one person on a normal course. It has a unique feature to extend at the rear and generate a second seat from beneath the driving seat inside the cabin so that a second passenger can also join in if need arises. The rear seat lies beneath the driving seat. When the cabin is extended it flushes out of the driving seat and gives enough space for a second rider.
In addtion, the body of the car is made of fibre reinforced plastic to keep it as light as possible without compromising on strength and toughness. The battery is located at the front as it is a front wheel powered electric vehicle. The space created in the cabin near the rear seat can also be used to place additional luggage. The basic idea of GeV revolves around reducing the size of the vehicle and at the same time to bring down its cost of production so that the vehicle suits the pocket of the masses.
