Telangana Engineer Plans 9600 KM Solar Odyssey To London!

Naveen Rabelli is planning for his dream journey across Asia and Europe, for which he has been planning for last 2 years. He will drive across Eurasia in a tuk-tuk, called Tejas, or auto rickshaw, which is powered entirely by electricity and solar power. He will leave India on a 9,600-km odyssey through 10 countries to promote the idea of environmentally friendly travel. Naveen plans to ride his tuk-tuk from Bangalore to Mumbai, before putting it on a boat to Iran. Picking up the journey in the Persian Gulf, he will ride to Turkey before crossing into Bulgaria and heading across Europe to the French port of Calais. From there, he will go to the United Kingdom. Naveen and his teammate Raoul Kopacka plan on travelling at a pace of 100 kilometres a day and complete the journey in about 90 days.

With this unique travel, he hopes to educate as many people as possible about his vision of environmentally friendly travel with smaller carbon foot print. The Telangana engineer is planning many stop-overs at as many universities as possible on his journey where we will speak with the students about the project and his dream. He would like to convey that sustainable energy is not far away and he would like to make the people aware that it is a reality now. Naveen says his passion for the environment and solar energy began when he met with Louis Palmer, a Swiss teacher.

Project: Tejas – Solar Tuk Tuk from India to the UK from Raoul Kopacka on Vimeo.

The engineer officially began work on Project Tejas in year 2012. He studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Uppal and did his engineering Aurora Engineering College, Hyderabad before moving to Australia where he worked with an automotive company. After stints in New Zealand and South East Asia, he returned to Bangalore to work with the Reva Electric Car Company.

Since quitting his job with Reva, Naveen has spent two years tinkering with his second-hand tuk-tuk, a Piaggio Ape auto rickshaw and equipped it with a new motor, battery and gearbox. The bright red vehicle doubled it’s usual weight with Naveen’s customization to almost 1 ton. With roof made entirely from solar panels, it is renamed ‘Tejas’.

The tuk tuk is currently doing testing rounds around Bangalore, where Naveen is based. It runs on solar energy and electricity and on a charge of 8 hours it can go 80 km. When charged for 8 hours on solar power, it can go 25 km. The tuk tuk is fitted with a computer which tracks the temperature of the vehicle and also the energy generated.  The cost of the project is around Rs 3.6 lakh Naveen’s entire savings. Naveen shows the vehicle’s travel is cost effective with just Rs 40 running it for 100 km pouting that diesel could cost 3-4 times that amount. . Before he leaves, he needs to raise more cash to reinforce the tuk-tuk’s rickety floor and to buy a lithium-ion battery to replace the old lead-acid power source.

When asked what made Naveen choose Raoul Kopacka as the travel companion, he quipped the 26 year old Austrian is short enough to sleep full length in the back of tuk-tuk during their halts on the intercontinental odyssey! Raoul Kopacka plans to film the journey and show one and all the travel that could make one and all rethink the way we travel. More details of the travel can be seen here - http://www.solartuktuk.com/