Team Averera
The Media Club IIT BHU wishes all its readers a happy and prosperous new year and embarks on its journey by bringing forth to you, the recent advancements made by Team Averera; a crew of automobile enthusiasts designing and building a hyper fuel-efficient electric vehicle to represent IIT BHU and India, at Shell Eco-Marathon, Asia.
Cars; from playing with their toy models to watching the breathtaking Fast and Furious movies to spending time gaping our mouths at the screens telecasting the incredible Grandpixes, we all grew up. Every one of will is on board to agree that at least once so far has each one of us imagined ourselves performing fascinating feats on these ferocious beasts. What is a dream if we don’t try to cherish it?
This very thought seems to have been the oxygen for Team Averera fuelling their hopes of performing a similar feat and stepping up the game every consecutive year. While the competition challenges engineering students across Asia to design, build and test their hyper fuel-efficient vehicles, Team Averera has been participating in this event for the last three annual chapters and it secured the 1st position in India and the 11th position in Asia with a staggering efficiency of 131.8Km/KWhr in the 2017 chapter of the event which was held at Changi Exhibition Centre, Singapore.
Their Next target is to manufacture Asia’s most fuel-efficient vehicle and bring laurels to the country. They have made crucial modifications to their next prototype with carbon fibre monocoque chassis, implementation of neural networks for efficiency optimization, etc being a few among many others. They have managed to keep the total prototype weight under 40kg. The drag coefficient of the prototype is 0.097 which is lower than many on-road cars. They have a self-made BLDC motor controller which is specifically optimized for obtaining efficiency according to the track conditions.
Bringing the technology used in their vehicle after creating a benchmark of efficiency in an international competition to the market is somewhat that they are thriving for. They believe that electric vehicles made on the concept of our powertrain (The powertrain encompasses every component that converts the engine’s power into movement. This includes the engine, the transmission, the driveshaft, differentials, axles; basically anything from the engine through to the rotating wheels) will prove to be more useful for the Indian customers. They have also been working on implementing certain innovations in the industry like working on Waste Plastic Oil and Solar Electric Vehicles project in collaboration with Tata Motors.
This legacy of building hyper fuel-efficient vehicle has been carried out forward unequivocally. Each year, the team has given their best in making the dream possible. Be it the tyre getting punctured or their vehicle colliding with another during their first attempt; undeterred by the hurdles, the team has not only managed to repair the vehicle and complete the remaining five successful attempts but has also been working relentlessly to pursue their goals. These days, the team is always busy indulged in their work at the Idea Development Centre IIT BHU.
The next pearl in their crown, Alterno v4.0 will soon be launched with the following specifications:
Wheel Arrangement — 2 Front Steer wheels, 1 Rear Powered Wheel
Body Shell — Carbo fibre monocoque
Steering Interface — Drag Link Mechanism, 4 Bar
Brakes — Mountain Bike Hydraulic Brakes
Dimensions — Length: 2785mm, Width: 900mm, Height: 585mm
Weight — 40 kg (Ready to race)
Frontal Area
Cd — 0.13
Tires — Michelin Radial 44–406; Rolling Resistance: 0.002
Battery — 48V,11Ah
Motor Controller — Custom Made (Variable Current, Variable Voltage)
Power Electronics — BMS + Smart Efficiency Manager
Motor — 48V, 500W BLDC 3 Phase Hub Motor; 300 rpm, 0.42 A, Torque 15Nm
Efficiency — Yet to be tested (under manufacturing)
