[darklord]

The Solar Hybrid Electric Car, designed and developed using in-house expertise, was successfully demonstrated recently in a test drive at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

http://zeenews.india.com/space/unvei...r-2002032.html

Also:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/58506141.cms

[GTO]

NDTV's article has more pics & details on the converted Omni.

[i74js]

Thanks for sharing GTO, but is ISRO planning to reinvent the wheel here? What exactly is the idea behind showcasing such projects which is waste of taxpayers money.

- They are not spearheading anything here, the western world and pure play auto giants are way ahead in terms of EVs

- Even after such a delayed activity, this is far from commercialization. Look at the crude presentation here. Even the prototypes carry a finesse, which is totally missing, I doubt if they mean business

- Picking up Omni ! I mean Omni which gives you truck load of real estate at throw away price. That means even the changes inside are equally crude as Omni per say does not require any space management; bull bars ! something which is not permitted as per law keeping pedestrian safety in mind has been shown here

ISRO has done some pioneering work in space sciences, disaster management, weather forecasting, Information technology and agriculture. They should stay put there, why are they getting into an area which is already years ahead of them and very much into commercial space !

This is disappointing !

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by i74js

What exactly is the idea behind showcasing such projects which is waste of taxpayers money.

The idea, from what I understand having read the news article is to demonstrate integration of hybrid power sources, namely Li-ion batteries and super-capacitors. Given that pure super-capacitors' use for EV is still being studied for mass commercialisation, hybrid-power sources is just a research topic as yet.

Look at the crude presentation here. Even the prototypes carry a finesse, which is totally missing, I doubt if they mean business

May be things are out of focus because we are looking through wrong lens? I believe the purpose of this project is to study the viability of using Li-ion batteries and associated technology used by ISRO in their space applications for EVs.

In that case, I wouldn't worry if they used a hand cart, if that served purpose.

- Picking up Omni ! I mean Omni which gives you truck load of real estate at throw away price.

Exactly and that is probably the reason for choosing Omni. Lots of space to play around. Remember, ISRO isn't aiming to launch a Tesla rival.

They should stay put there, why are they getting into an area which is already years ahead of them and very much into commercial space !

I would be glad to read more about super-capacitor battery hybrid vehicles which are very much in commercial space!

This is disappointing !

We should probably delve deeper to find more details before reaching such a conclusion.

[aim120]

There are far better DIY EV solar vehicle conversions out there.
Except for the CNC milled motor mount, everything else appears to be off the shelf.

Even in aeroindia 2017, the DRDO QuadCopter was a joke, made of welded metal tubes and off the shelf Chinese parts, by the looks of it would barely have the power to lift any payload.

Our media hypes everything.

[jeepster_chd]

Originally Posted by i74js

What exactly is the idea behind showcasing such projects which is waste of taxpayers money.

- They are not spearheading anything here, the western world and pure play auto giants are way ahead in terms of EVs

- Even after such a delayed activity, this is far from commercialization. Look at the crude presentation here. Even the prototypes carry a finesse, which is totally missing, I doubt if they mean business

- Picking up Omni ! I mean Omni which gives you truck load of real estate at throw away price. That means even the changes inside are equally crude as Omni per say does not require any space management; bull bars ! something which is not permitted as per law keeping pedestrian safety in mind has been shown here

ISRO has done some pioneering work in space sciences, disaster management, weather forecasting, Information technology and agriculture. They should stay put there, why are they getting into an area which is already years ahead of them and very much into commercial space !

This is disappointing !

You must be kidding me. Your pure play auto giants charge lithium ion batteries using the conventional source of electricity. And from where this electricity comes, most of the times from burning the coal. Whereas, what ISRO is doing using taxpayers money is use a natural source of energy to charge the lithium ion batteries. It is eco-friendly, cost-effective and the charging is real-time.

To me it is indeed a great step and India is leading the way. Kudos ISRO!

[deehunk]

ISRO's claims on not compromising the safety aspects of the vehicle are itself a big joke, it's an Omni, the most unsafe car on road in India. Can this be sent to Mars, just waste of money?

[mayd85]

I think this is more of an 'indigenous technology demonstration' kind of a project. ISRO has been working with ARAI for some time now, for adapting indigenously developed Lithium-ion battery in automotive applications. ARAI had showcased one e-bike proto with such a battery at SIAT 2017 held at ARAI.

http://www.autocarpro.in/news-nation...-scooter-23330

This solar-hybrid might also be a result of that effort.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by jeepster_chd

You must be kidding me. Your pure play auto giants charge lithium ion batteries using the conventional source of electricity. And from where this electricity comes, most of the times from burning the coal. Whereas, what ISRO is doing using taxpayers money is use a natural source of energy to charge the lithium ion batteries. It is eco-friendly, cost-effective and the charging is real-time.
To me it is indeed a great step and India is leading the way. Kudos ISRO!

Reva has an option of a solar charger which doubles up as a covered parking for the car. ISRO is not the first in the country to offer solar charging and remember that Reva is already selling it as a commercial product. So ISRO does not get any brownie points for so called green energy.
Agreed to the indigenous technology demonstrator part, but seems like ISRO is far behind than, even the Indian manufacturers. The major challenge for an electric vehicle compared to a conventional car is the range (and also the time it takes to recharge, once the juice runs out of the battery; battery swapping being one option). Only Tesla is able to come up with an acceptable range in the mass market yet. If ISRO could do something in that direction, then that will be something really worth the mention.

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

It seems ISRO is trying to address exactly this, at least the article seems to indicate so:
This should theoretically improve the range as well since batteries have to supply at a near constant current and not dig deep into the charge.

The current Tesla models give a range of up to 315 miles/charge (~505km) (claimed). But I don't see any numbers for the ISRO demonstrator. If they are able to achieve more, it's great; no question about that.

[i74js]

Originally Posted by jeepster_chd

You must be kidding me. Your pure play auto giants charge lithium ion batteries using the conventional source of electricity. And from where this electricity comes, most of the times from burning the coal. Whereas, what ISRO is doing using taxpayers money is use a natural source of energy to charge the lithium ion batteries. It is eco-friendly, cost-effective and the charging is real-time.

To me it is indeed a great step and India is leading the way. Kudos ISRO!

There is no point of arguing in the forum. You have the right to disregard what I said. I would only suggest you to access the technology documents / patents made public by Tesla and you will know where I am coming from.

[ksameer1234]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

Only Tesla is able to come up with an acceptable range in the mass market yet. If ISRO could do something in that direction, then that will be something really worth the mention.

It seems ISRO is trying to address exactly this, at least the article seems to indicate so:

To drive the car, energy was supplied to the vehicle by energy density Lithium ion batteries connected across high power density super-capacitors. The battery delivered the sustained energy requirement while the super-capacitor supported the peak power demand during high torque conditions. This arrangement of power sharing helped in enhancing the life of power-restricted batteries.

This should theoretically improve the range as well since batteries have to supply at a near constant current and not dig deep into the charge.

[smekad]

That solar panel fitted on top of the car looks like a joke!. Cmon they could have thought of better way of integrating the panels? Looks at best like a jugaad to me- not expected of an R&D organisation.

I don't know what the budget for this was, but they should have done a better job in case they wanted to showcase it to media!

Sorry ISRO- disappointing-

[anand.shankar]

Quite late, but a move in the right direction nevertheless. Its about time we came up with some indigenous Govt. backed technology in this sector, instead of always relying on overpriced alien technology. ISRO should already have a decent amount of know-how about solar power and batteries, all the satellites use them, dont they ?

Don't fret about the presentation, we can't expect swanky models from them, frankly, don't think it matters here as well. We shouldn't forget the humble beginnings of their space programs, and how far they have progressed.

[deep_bang]

Prototypes are always like jugaad. That's OK. The real question I have is the business interest here. ISRO is a space agency - what advantage do they get from this experiment?

One possibility is that the government commissioned them to do something for their 2030 vision of moving towards electric cars. If that's the case, ISRO could always sell the technology (or even give it away for free) to manufacturers like Mahindra who are already in that space. The jugaad like stuff would all sort itself out once it reaches production.

The most important thing is, there is not a single (production) car out there that actually charges the car on the move or when parked. So, if ISRO can proof-of-concept it, it's a great thing for India - reduces a huge import bill, India is blessed with great sunlight in most parts too.

[prakhar1998]

Honestly, bashing the ISRO for an effort that we don't even have any specifications about is naïve and juvenile.

An organisation that was able to send one of the cheapest and most innovative missions to mars is not one that deserves to bashed by people who have no idea about their workings, and only work by the stereotypical idea of Indian organisations only doing shoddy work.

So what they are using an Omni, or the prototype is not as flashy as a Tesla or Faraday future, but that's not their job. Their job is to test the efficacy of certain technologies and also not burning a hole through the taxpayers money, and they have time and again proven themselves.

I applaud ISROs effort, and I am certain that this effort has many details that are interesting that we are unaware of.