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| Sunday, 4 September 2005 |
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Electric three-wheelers to counter rising oil prices by Elmo Leonard While crude oil prices last week hit an all-time-high of $71 per barrel in electronic trading, a Sri Lankan company Ceytro Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, Battaramulla, came up with a concept of running a four-person vehicle at $1 per 100 kilometres.
The vehicle conforms to the three-wheeler design popular in India and Sri Lanka. It is designed by young Sri Lankan design engineer, Aan de Silva. The concept comes from another Sri Lankan, automobile engineer Dhatusena Senanayake and is funded by Australian Venture capital company, Environmental Ventures (EV) Melbourne covering $1million for three years. Senanayake, in 1995 converted a diesel Fargo van to run on 24 batteries and formed the Lanka Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) Battaramulla, as its president. Yet, it took the association nine years and five months to obtain clearance for electrical vehicles from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, Colombo, Senanayake said. Ceytro Lanka, is a joint venture between LEVA and the Australian EV under BOI. Australian national, Paul Voutier, a mechanical engineer, said that his company brings in investment into new technology. The vehicle's batteries have to be electrically charged for six to eight hours enabling the vehicle to run 50 kilometres, costing Re 1 per kilometre. The vehicle could at anytime be connected to an electrical main. It is estimated that Sri Lanka loses $1 billion per year on traffic congestion. During traffic blocks, the motor of the new innovation could be disconnected, conserving electricity charged into its batteries. Some tourists shun air polluted cities and Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Dr Prathap Ramanujam feels the new concept to be tourist friendly. The company has orders for three vehicles, priced at $2,500 (Rs 250,000) each and hopes to put out 40 more vehicles by the end of this year. The vehicle has a metre which indicates when its electricity is low. In time, the company intends setting up battery exchange centres, in Colombo and its suburbs with emphasis to initially market these vehicles in the metropolises, Senanayake said. The maintenance of these vehicles would be simple, it bearing no clutch, gear or other complicated device, Voutier said. |
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