Hyderabad based Mahindra Ecole Centrale, India’s premier engineering college has recently set up an Electric Vehicle Technology (EVT) laboratory at its campus. The laboratory will work towards scientific and technological aspects of green and clean mobility. Students from all streams of engineering at MEC will work on the design, development, and testing of electric vehicles.

“Clean Mobility has been given high priority by the Government of India and we at MEC are also committed to working towards finding solutions for issues of national interest. Electric Vehicles are the future and so are fast charging Li-Ion batteries (this year’s Nobel Prize-winning topic in Chemistry) as well as energy sources to power these vehicles. MEC’s EVT lab will work on these and more and will research all aspects that will propel this technology sector. We are looking at tying up with relevant partners to work on exciting live projects together,” says Dr. Yajulu Medury, director, MEC.

The EVT lab will mainly focus on aspects of mechanical, electrical and embedded systems. Under the mechanical segment, the laboratory will focus on Thermal Management Systems for batteries, testing facility to analyse and optimise the battery characteristics under different running conditions, development of robust battery management system, transmission system of an EV, methods of recycling and reuse of spent battery, new materials to serve as catalyst of Li-ion battery and new energy source technology for EVs.

From the electrical engineering perspective, the focus on MEC’s EVT lab will be on electric motor control, power electronic converters, battery charging technology, robust charging infrastructure, and regenerative braking system. It is expected that an embedded system and intra as well as inter-vehicle communication will be also be investigated in the near future.