The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, today flagged off the DTU Passenger Solar Car at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Solar Passenger Car has been designed and developed by a team of Delhi Technological University (DTU). The team comprises of an interdisciplinary group of under-graduate students headed by Shri Dhiraj Mishra of the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of DTU.

With a top speed of 120 km/hr, the solar car is a zero carbon emission completely eco-friendly car and has a sedan shape with a seating capacity of 2 and option of adding 3 seats more. The body is made of special grade Matt Fibre in order to keep the solar car light in weight and performance oriented. Flexible modules of Mono crystalline solar silicon cells of 21.4% efficiency have been pasted all over the top of the body in order to entrap maximum solar energy. In all, 800 W is generated from the solar modules.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. P.B. Sharma, Vice Chancellor of DTU said that the future of automobiles in India lies in solar power and hybrid vehicles. He stated that DTU is firmly committed to empower India's solar powered vehicles and solar power generation systems. The innovations in the area of Solar Car began with the University team designing the first Solar Car of India to participate in the World Solar Challenge organized in 2011 in Australia.

This release issued at 1645 hrs