Mumbai: The racing team of IIT Bombay has developed what they claim is the fastest Indian electric racing car Orca, which will race in July in Formula Student (UK), the international counterpart of formula one at engineering college level.
IIT-Bombay’s racing team launched ORCA, along with NRB Bearings, Tata Motors, CEAT Tyres and other sponsors on Sunday at the campus auditorium.
“With an acceleration of 0-100kmph in 3.47 seconds, ORCA is faster than any other sports car made by Porsche, Tesla or Audi. Not only is its acceleration a record, it is the first time we have a special steel-frame chassis with carbon-fibre manufactured body, which not only reduces the weight but also stabilises the car at high speeds,” said Rishabh Kappasia, a 4th-year student of Engineering Physics and leader of Team ORCA.
“The car is awesome to drive thanks to its light weight, and its stability increases at high speeds,” added Manthan Mahajan, a 4th-year student who drives ORCA whenever the team participates in any competition.
With more than 70 students working on it, the project took around 10 months for conceptualisation and execution and underwent testing for two months.
With more than 20,000 components, the team was successful in reducing the weight of the chassis (skeleton of the car) from 55 kg to 29 kg.
“The low voltage safety system monitors the temperature of the cells and keeps the high and low voltage systems separate”, explained Kapasi.
Orca is the fifth electric car manufactured by IIT Bombay’s racing team and uses a battery pack of 95 cells, which will deliver continuous power of 80 kilowatt.
Nilesh Bansode, chief mechanical officer and racer, who has been a part of team for three years now, added that the energy density which they were able to manufacture in this project using the packing friction technique can be compared to that achieved by TESLA.
Tanushree Bagrodia, the chief sponsor of Orca, said, “We are proud of the all the achievements of the racing team of IIT Bombay.”
The car will represent India in the Formula Student UK competition, an annual car competition where electric and IC engine cars are judged on the type of engineering and the presentation skill, among other parameters. The IIT-Bombay team has participated in the event over the past five years, and are the only team to receive the FS award for design improvement three consecutive years.