Kochi: If everything went well, a sports bike will hit the market, that’s global market, from Kerala. And that will be powered by a battery.
Paul Alex, Nabeem Abdulla and their six member team, all from National Institute of Technology, Calicut started their experimenting on battery-powered two-wheelers at the Team Unwired club in NIT and on Saturday emerged as the winners of the best Innovative Idea contest KSIDC conducted as part of the YES CAN summit. The team won Rs 1 lakh for their presentation.
Their Hound Electric company has produced a prototype and plans to come out with the final version in 2017.
“At present, IC engines have a fuel efficiency of 30 per cent but our battery-powered motor will take it beyond 90 per cent,” Mr Alex said.
“The motor can provide 60 hp power with continuous torque, giving it the excitement of a sports bike.”
The team has already spent Rs 10 lakh on developing the prototype and is now looking for venture capital funding. “We want to bring out the product on our own,” they said.
Aflah Madasserry from Malappuram won the second prize and Rs 50,000 for designing a device for with ultrasonic wave emitters to help visually-challenged persons while Thoufeeq Abdul Azeez from Ernakulam won the third prize and Rs 30,000 his idea for recycling chemical wastes as construction materials. Seven of the 10 ideas the panel of experts selected from 539 received Rs 25,000 each.
