ENVIU Hybrid Tuktuk Battle with Video!

Photos: ENVIU, video: Francisca Zee, Zozee

On May 18th four Dutch teams from different technical universities competed at the ENVIU Hybrid Tuktuk event in Rotterdam. The teams presented their technical solutions to make tuktuks hybrid and their business plans for the implementation and roll out in India.

During the day, ENVIU director Stef van Dongen, the temporary President-General of VROM Hugo von Meijenfeldt and Wubbo Ockels held speeches and the four Dutch teams presented their plans. At the end of the day a mini-race took place in which Hanzehogeschool Groningen was the first to finish.

Goals

The goals of this international battle are threefold:
- CO2 emission reduction of at least 40%
- Increase of income of the tuktuk drivers with at least 35 %
- Improvement of the air quality of Indian cities.

The result of the battle, in which teams of four Dutch and three Indian technical universities participate, must be a working prototype and a feasible business plan.

Solutions

The team from Eindhoven first studied the way the rickshaws are used in traffic and discovered that the drivers often drive short distances and then stop and wait in traffic. So they invented a start-stop system that turns off the engine when stopping and starts it again when necessary. According to the team this system saves up to 15 % fuel for an investment of 150 euros.

Team Delft claims to have found a solution for only 18 euros that also saves up to 15 % fuel and reduces emissions. They simply changed the exhaust pipe to one that better combines with the motor than the one commonly used.

The students also looked into different types of fuel. For instance, team Groningen focuses on the use of natural gas, whereas Delft sticks to petrol and Arhem chose for LPG. For the final event the four rickshaws will be shipped to India to be tested by local drivers and to compete with the solutions three Indian teams came up with.

d.o.b foundation

d.o.b foundation has committed to inject € 210.000 into phase one which covers costs of the pre-start until those of the end battle that will take place in India from July 22nd - 25th. The other large financial partner is VROM.

Besides financial support d.o.b foundation provides non-financial support. For instance d.o.b is actively involved in helping develop the strategy for this ENVIU project, participating in monthly meetings with other advisors and searching for more co-investors.

Watch the video!

Watch the video in which the teams race their hybrid tuktuks, Stef van Dongen talks about the battle and Wubbo Ockels shares his wisdom concerning Tuktuks, the moon and kissing.