Cheap Hybrid Auto Rickshaw the Focus of Student Competition

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With 100 million auto rickshaws in use across Asia, student teams from Dutch and Indian universities are taking the challenge to design the cleanest, cheapest and most practical upgrade kit to cut carbon emissions from their incredibly polluting, two-stroke motors.

Each of the rickshaws, known as tuktuks in India, creates as much pollution as 50 cars, and project organizers have set themselves the goal of adapting one million of them to reduce their CO2 emissions by 40-60%.

Economic and Social Impacts of Hybrid Auto Rickshaw
A goal which just may be accomplished if students can come up with the right mix of technology to pull it off, and an achievement which will have enormous social impact for the millions of people who are financially dependent on them for their livelihood, earning 3 to 4 dollars a day.

And in further proof that the green movement is good for the economy, research done by project organizers at Enviu indicate that it may well be possible to increase the incomes of the rickshaw drivers by at least 35% and offer the associated carbon credits for sale on the international carbon market as well.

The winning team is expected to be announced in May of 2009, and we’re looking forward to seeing what they’ve come up with!

via: press release

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