BERLIN, Oct. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- One of todays most ambitious projects is getting underway: a new partnership between India and Germany is paving the way for
the electric car "Car Pi", which will get its energy from the environment rather than from a charging station, making it completely independent of "dishonest" electricity generated by the combustion of fossil fuels.
The announcement comes from the International Conference on Multifunctional Electronic Materials and Processing (MEMP 2021) in India. Dr. Vijay Pandurang Bhatkar, a computer scientist and the Rector of India's Nalanda University, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC). Vijay Pandurang Bhatkar is the developer of the PARAM supercomputer and the founder of India's state-run High Performance Computing program.
The pact establishes a new cooperation between India's C-MET Science Centre and the
Neutrino Energy Group, one of the world's top electronic materials research and development institutes. This Berlin-based, German-American business has created a device that converts ambient energy into electrical current using an innovative graphene-based composite material. "This new, unique smart partnership has the potential to put in motion revolutionary processes in the fields of energy generation and automotive technology," says
Neutrino Energy Group CEO Holger Thorsten Schubart.
The pact was signed under the auspices of the Indian government and other partners by C-MET, a Pune-based materials center for electronic technologies that is part of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and, therefore, the Indian government. It paves the way for the Car Pi to be developed by merging financial and intellectual resources.
The collaboration will focus on materials science, electronic materials, 2D materials, the production of quantum dots, and the development of applied devices. The project's implementation budget has been estimated at $2.5 billion USD.
The Car-Pi electric car, which does not require power from charging stations, is intended to be the product of the collaboration. Autonomous power sources integrated within the body of the electric vehicle will collect energy from the environment and generate propulsion. This method will also be utilized to charge the compact battery pack that is used to cover peak loads. This novel method has the potential to alleviate electric mobility constraints such as long charging periods or the need to ramp up conventional power generation to fulfill the demand for electric vehicles, all while reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Shri Sanjay Dhotre, India's Minister of State for Education, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, said at MEMP 2021 that the alliance will "certainly have the broadest support of the Government of India."
Dr. Bharat Bhanudas Kale, co-founder and director of the Centre for Materials for Electronic Technology (C-MET) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London, is also part of the team and sees the signing of the partnership memorandum and the start of the collaboration as particularly significant for the global community in the field of energy and materials. In this domain, the scientist is one of the world's leading specialists.
"Despite the fact that the technology has been verified and tested in lab settings, there is still a long way to go before the first Car Pi hits the road." Holger Thorsten Schubart notes that the development of the self-charging Car Pi necessitates additional study into power generating dependability under various situations, as well as safety and a variety of other factors. According to him, the design and demonstration facility in Frankfurt will be an important component of the project.
"We are delighted to begin this adventure with C-MET, which is known for its globally recognized expertise -
the Neutrino Energy Group has been seeking a qualified partner to manage such a huge and complicated project for a long time," stated Holger Thorsten Schubart. "As wonderful and audacious as it may sound, building a self-charging electric car is unquestionably a new milestone in the history of automotive engineering and in particular electric mobility."