The College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET), has designed a geared electric motorcycle, controlled by electronic circuit, which is touted to be more cost-efficient than the conventional petrol engine bike.
The design was undertaken in the research laboratory of the college’s Department of Electrical Engineering by research scholar Jino Joy under the guidance for former Professor and Head of the Department S. Ushakumari.
The research team has evolved arrangements both with and without the motor for operating the motorcycle.
The former is powered by a permanent magnet brushless DC (or BLDC) motor, equipped with a gearbox arrangement, along with a solar panel that could be used to recharge the battery pack free-of-cost.
The vehicle is as powerful as the conventional petrol engine bike, Dr. Ushakumari said, adding that the college had filed for patent for the technology in 2017.
Innovative technology
They stumbled upon yet another innovative technology through continuous research that paved way for the design of a motorless geared electric two-wheeler that worked on magnetic energy.
The motorcycle required very few numbers of electronic components and any vehicle, including multi-cylinder ones, could be modified as such in a cost-effective manner.
Having applied for another patent for the particular invention early this year, the college believes that the technology could be adopted for commercial-scale production.
According to Dr. Joy, the 12V lithium ion batteries in the conventional motorcycles will have to be replaced with 48V ones to power the modified bikes.
The cost of converting the standard bikes to the electric ones could roughly come to around ₹30,000, including the expense of the battery.
Considering the prevalent electricity tariff and the fuel rates, the electric variants were bound to incur only a fraction of the running cost, when compared to the conventional ones.
While travelling each km on a petrol engine bike would cost ₹1.50, the motor-powered electric vehicles would require only 20 paise, he pointed out.
CET Principal Jiji C.V. said that a number of research activities on electric vehicles were progressing with financial assistance from the Central and the State governments.
