ET Online

Amitabh Saran, Shalendra Gupta Bangalore35Using Methanol as a source of fuel, the Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari, wants to cut India`s crude oil import bill by 30%. The Minister has earmarked 2030 as the year to achieve his ambitious target, but a revolutionary technology now promises to help anyone with any form of automobile - bikes to 16-wheeler trucks, to significantly cut down their fuel bill.With cars, pedestrians and potholes competing for space on India's narrow roads, traffic snarls have become uneventful. While the dent it makes on one's time and peace of mind is well-accepted, too little has been said about the impact it has on vehicles.The constant stop-start-repeat motion causes great loss of energy, delivering poor fuel economy as a result."Powering a car needs a big input of energy, and each time it slows down, all this energy dissipates as heat and needs to be recreated to speed up the vehicle again," says co-founder of tech startup Altigreen, Shalendra Gupta. "A more efficient way to drive would be to convert this wasted energy into electricity to motor a slowing vehicle," he adds.Premised on this idea, Gupta joined three others - all PhD holders - to design and develop a low-cost solution that can convert almost any car into a hybrid version - one that improves fuel efficiency by as much as 20%!Founded in 2012, Altigreen develops special motor components (or powertrains) that can be retrofitted to existing fossil-fuel based cars, converting them into partially electrified hybrid vehicles. Its retrofit system - monikered HyPixi - brings down fuel consumption and reduces emissions as well as maintenance costs - all for a modest one-time investment."HyPixi captures the kinetic energy that is wasted and stores it in the battery," says Gupta. "When the driver wants to accelerate, HyPixi's motor utilizes this stored energy to assist the combustion engine, thus reducing the load on the engine and, consequently trimming fuel consumption and emissions," he adds.This cycle is repeated every time the vehicle decelerates-accelerates - as much as 3 to 10 times a minute."The entire electric energy used to assist the engine and recharge the car's batteries is produced from wasted kinetic energy through this concept of regenerative braking," he says. "Tests have established that vehicles with HyPixi can save up to 30% on fuel costs alone. It also helps bring down tailpipe emissions (CO2, NOx, PM) by as much as 20%," he adds.A deft team of 35 have put together a (now patented) design that provides significantly higher power and torque compared to standard machines, allowing the reduction of the use of internal combustion engine by utilizing the electricity generated out of waste kinetic energy.A brief description of the various components of HyPixi (Hybrid Power Intelligent Exchange Drive)According to the IIM-A alumnus, HyPixi is the only certified/type approved product in India that converts in-use vehicles into hybrids. This plug-in system costs anywhere between Rs 60,000 - 80,000 depending on the gross vehicle weight and can convert all kinds of automobiles - from bikes to 16-wheeler trucks."HyPixi does not tamper with the car's existing engine; instead, it is an entirely separate system that incorporates additional batteries in the car," says Gupta. "The driving experience thus remains the same, unlike in factory-fitted CNG cars" he adds.As per the startup, HyPixi has an addressable market of 20 million cars, millions of trucks and buses, and even 3-wheelers. Hybrid cars are popular overseas, with companies like Tesla employing it in its fully electric fleet of cars and the trend can potentially catch on in India. Just that most car models in India that use this technology today are expensive."They are either in the Rs 35-45 lakh range, so too few will be sold to have any real impact on the environment too," says Gupta.Fuel in India is the most expensive in the world as a ratio of "price per litre" to "GDP per capita". More importantly, over a million people reportedly die early each year due to poor air quality - emissions from road transport being responsible for nearly 60% of this in cities.Hence, India is in dire need of technologies that reduce emissions and fuel consumption."While fully electric vehicles may be the future, it will be decades before it is widely adopted," says Gupta. "By then there will be another 50 million cars sold in India. These, along with existing vehicles on the road today, will pollute more," he adds.According to him, HyPixi is the ONLY technology that can reduce pollution from in-use vehicles since it uses waste energy. More importantly, what is the point of switching to e-vehicles that uses electricity generated by fossil fuels like coal, he asks.The founders also understood that India's twin problems of killer pollution and crippling crude oil imports were not going to be solved by any imported technology."We develop electric powertrains that are specially designed for the needs of a developing country like India," says Gupta. "Our design takes factors like low driving speeds, temperature range, road conditions etc. into consideration. A cookie-cutter approach will not work - if we try to fit one solution into multiple categories, it will either underperform or be too expensive. Neither of these outcomes is acceptable to us," he adds.Gupta claims that HyPixi is suitable - both in terms of appropriate technology as well as cost - for 75% of vehicles in India."We also have full electric solutions for 3-wheelers (passenger and cargo), cars and other vehicles which are currently being tested by OEMs for their existing and upcoming platforms," he adds.Although it has been a hard five years for the team with the startup constantly in R&D, it finally went commercial last year. Its innovations have been validated not only in the lab and field, but also by 9 patents filed and numerous awarded in India, USA, Australia, South Asia and South-East Asia.It is also collaborating with global automobile manufacturers to develop solutions for e-vehicles. In fact, Altigreen was shortlisted among 200 startups by British carmaker MG Motor for its innovation programme in India."The biggest challenge we faced was in developing the technology," admits Gupta. "How do you create components that can fit into existing, highly engineered, high-performing vehicles? The technological challenges were compounded by the need to innovate with very little funding, make the product low-cost and high quality, and do all this without an established ecosystem that encourages innovation," he adds.The co-founders - who collectively had, at that time, over 75 years of research, industrial and entrepreneurial experience - travelled from Ambala to Coimbatore (with many detours along the way), visiting plants that could manufacture prototypes to the exacting standards needed to make the innovative technology perform.In fact, Gupta precisely outlines the five-year long development process of Altigreen's HyPixi solution:Collect data, understand and analyse the problem, create working proof of concept, run simulations and file first patents.Make first designs and prototype, test as individual components and then eventually together in a car.Redesign based on the results of previous prototype, re-test and try on different models to validate performance across models. Work with govt agencies to get the regulations for retrofits notified.Continue iterations to increase efficiency, expand road testing, start validating components and system in third party labs; identify, evaluate and shortlist potential vendors who would be able to manufacture to the required precision level.Start pilots with customers and begin endurance testing in the lab and on the road for long distances.Establish a manufacturing base, start commercial production and receive orders, build supply chain, obtain more certifications from ARAI and ICAT and continue technological improvements."We wanted to drive the move to zero emission vehicles - a vision we call 'Carbon Free Transportation'," says Gupta. "We will have a nationwide network of trained installation and service centers in the next two years so that maximum number of people can benefit from our technology. With widespread adoption of HyPixi, India can not only achieve its carbon reduction goals, but also improve urban public health and substantially speed up the transition to full electric vehicles," he adds.