Naveed Ahmed

Students of Pakistan Navy Engineering College, National University of Sciences and Technology (PNEC-NUST), have been finding novel ways to raise funding for advancement of their technological innovations, especially in electric automobiles. The Formula Electric Racing NUST (FERN) team have developed its own electric sports cars and participated in international racing competitions. Apart from winning races, the team also receive attention from multinational corporations for improving their equipment and innovation.

NUST/WealthPK

Danial Atif, a member of FERN, told WealthPK that they have recently collaborated with TESLA — a leading American multinational automotive and clean energy company. “The company will provide expensive parts and technical assistance to improve our electric vehicle for racing competitions. These parts include chips and other gadgets that FREN cannot buy without financial support.

Tesla awards this sponsorship to ‘Formula Student Teams’ from around the world, and FERN is the first and only team from Pakistan to have been conferred this award,” he said. Danial said that along with TESLA, FERN also has financial support from Unilever, Fasial Steel, and MARSEK (Danish international container shipping company). “MARSEK provides us free shipment facility for transporting equipment worldwide,” he said.

Danial said the team have been keeping on developing better versions of electric sports cars to meet the racing requirement at the international level since 2016. “During this journey, we have achieved many milestones. In 2016, we won the second position in the Student Formula 1 competition held in Russia, and many other coemptions at the international level,” he said.

He said FERN will participate in UK Student Formula 1 in 2023. He said FERN is also the first team to work on driverless vehicles in Pakistan. “Our FREN team have 40 members working in different domains. Some members are working on technical issues related to electric automobile maintenance and improvement, some manage research components, and some communicate with companies at the global level for sponsorship,” he explained.

Danial said the FERN research team has carried out a lot of research on cost and benefit analysis for adopting large-scale electric automobiles in Pakistan. He pointed out that as global pressure increases on traditional fuels, and due to their hazardous effects on the environment, electric vehicles are a viable option for Pakistan.

Pakistan has enormous potential for producing renewable energy through various resources. “If the government vigorously pursues harvesting the renewable potential of Pakistan, the electric automobile can be adopted on a large scale. As the automobile industry is emerging worldwide, Pakistan can benefit from this industry by giving special attention to this sector,” he said.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk