The two-seater car weights 590 kg and can reach a speed of 60kph.
As levels of air pollution rise, 27 students of the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka have developed a solar-powered car called SERve or the Solar Electric Road Vehicle to encourage people to go green.
The students hope to make the two-seater car that weights 590 kg and can reach a speed of 60kmph, commercially viable.
"There are not many solar cars present in the world right now. This, I think, is one of the three solar cars, passenger solar cars which are there in the world. The thing is we have tried to optimize the total cost of the manufacturing of the project. So, we've done it within Rs 25 lakh. We consider that as an achievement," Jeet Bannerjee, leader of the team of students, told NDTV.
The students received help from Tata Power Solar which provided the solar panels for this initiative.
The solar panel is curved to fit the car's surface and its aerodynamic design, and at 35kg, weighs much less than conventional panels.
"The car needs very light weight and high efficient modules in a very aerodynamic structure and that services we have provided to them," said Ashish Khanna, The Executive Director and CEO of Tata Solar Power.
"Our support has been to motivate them, give them the module side, the energy side complete solution to them and work with them because their requirements were also changing as and when they were innovating," he added.