The students of Mechanical Engineering Department of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, over the weekend, unveiled an energy efficient and environment friendly “Made in Nigeria car”.
The car is expected to use one gallon of fuel to cover 100km, the university authority said.
Addressing newsmen after a demonstration-drive of the car in ABU, the Head of Department, Mechanical Engineering, Dr Mohammed Dauda, said the car would participate in “Shell Eco Marathon Competition” in Netherlands during the year.
Dauda, who is also the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, said the car was part of the Federal Government’s automotive policy essentially targeted at stimulating the growth of the automotive industry.
The car during test running [ABU Zaria]
“This is an annual competition that Shell invites academic institutions both universities and colleges all over the five continents of the world whereby faculties of engineering design and develop an automotive car.
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“The car should be one that consumes the lowest fuel but goes the far distance. This competition is carried out in America, Europe and Asia and we (Nigeria) are participating in the European one in Netherlands, May 2015,” he said.
Dauda said that almost all the materials used for the production were sourced locally.
Abu zaria energy efficient car
He said Shell invited ABU to design and develop a car that would compete in the 2015 Rothadam Eco Marathon Competition.
“But based on the theme of the competition, “Echo Marathon” which is making it environmentally friendly or echo friendly, what we tried to do is some kind of recycling.
“Even though there are things that we did not fabricate ourselves but you will be surprised that some of the components like the electrical, we just looked at an old computer system and then adopted some of the components that would be useful to us.
“So this is one example of what we did which is recycling, otherwise, I will say 100 per cent everything is produce locally here in Zaria,”
Dauda said.
He identified limitation of machine tools and the lack of funds to adequately carry out the project as challenges to its actualisation. (NAN)
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