Photo: OAU Peeps
You find today electric or hybrid vehicles out of you financial reach? Why don’t you attend some vehicle engineering classes and build one yourself as this Nigerian student proved its possible while maintaining the budget under $7,000.
Segun Oyeyiola, student of Obagemi Awolowo University, decided to laugh in the face of modern electric vehicles and make his own out of an old classic car to show the world that you can reduce your carbon footprint without spending a suitcase of money first on other stuff you get in a car designed to save the world... Like LCD screens, sensors, automatic climate control and other gizmos that eat up the battery.
The vehicle of choice was a green oldschool Volkswagen Beetle that Segun stripped out of unnecessary bits like the internal combustion engine, transmission and interior features to make it light.
And it needed to be light, because it had to hold a massive solar panel on its roof and a wind turbine under the hood along with the battery and the electric motor. Yep, the car is powered both by solar- and wind-power on the go, while at home you can recharge the batteries in around 4 to 5 hours.
The eBeetle is far from perfect now, but the fact it works surprised everyone, especially the trolls that were making fun of Segun while working on it, telling him it’s a waste of time.
Oyeyiola spent around $6,000 and tried sticking mostly to scrap parts for his Mad Max-style car. Finally having it functional now left the young man some spare time to take his finals, after which he promised to return and find new ways to enhance and achieve the most out of it.
The vehicle of choice was a green oldschool Volkswagen Beetle that Segun stripped out of unnecessary bits like the internal combustion engine, transmission and interior features to make it light.
And it needed to be light, because it had to hold a massive solar panel on its roof and a wind turbine under the hood along with the battery and the electric motor. Yep, the car is powered both by solar- and wind-power on the go, while at home you can recharge the batteries in around 4 to 5 hours.
The eBeetle is far from perfect now, but the fact it works surprised everyone, especially the trolls that were making fun of Segun while working on it, telling him it’s a waste of time.
Oyeyiola spent around $6,000 and tried sticking mostly to scrap parts for his Mad Max-style car. Finally having it functional now left the young man some spare time to take his finals, after which he promised to return and find new ways to enhance and achieve the most out of it.
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