Our main objective is to create an electric motor driven cargo van; basically taking the muscle powered cycle rickshaw vans commonly seen in Dhaka and motorizing them. Considering the country is periodically hit with frequent power cuts due to shortages, our aim was to meet as much of the vehicle’s electricity needs as possible via solar power. Basically our goal is increased productivity, worker welfare and green energy all rolled into one. Now for the purpose of our demonstration we chose to implement the real-life design but on a smaller scale. Nonetheless we were able to extract conclusive results from our prototype. Basically changing the parameters allowed us to conduct a simulation, e.g. our motor was underpowered so we reduced the size of the cargo cart to match the weight- power ratio of the real design. As for our goal of solar sufficiency, it is important to note that the vehicles energy demands shift with a firm’s workload. In our simulation a fully loaded van was able to meet 27% of its annual energy needs from the sun.
We had to rely on mostly locally available parts. If in the future more efficient higher end parts whose price will be brought down via economy-of-scale, would vastly improve power absorption while reducing power expenditure