Greek students create futuristic electric car from scratch eyeing mass production

by Aggelos Skordas

“Prometheus”, is the research team of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) Electrical and Computer Engineering Department undergraduate and PhD candidate students intending to bring revolution to the way we move. Baring its name from the ancient Greek mythical titan who defied the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity, the team members design and construct high efficiency electric vehicles.

With raw materials and passion they have constructed from scratch a hand-made, eco-friendly, prototype, electric vehicle able to travel 1.000 km for less than 20 cents of a euro.

After seven years of challenging improvements the team created “Pyrforos II” (which means he who brings fire). The team’s newest accomplishment and successor of “Pyrforos”, is a futuristic electric vehicle. Using an electric motor, while solely powered by Li-Ion (lithium-ion) batteries “Pyroforos II” is actually cheaper than using a laptop computer. A trip from Athens to Paris with “Pyroforos II” costs less than 60 cents of a euro, while only 30 minutes of charging is enough to obtain its range. Faster than the urban transportation average speed it only weights 39 kg and reaches a top speed of 50 km/h. The vehicle is powered by photovoltaic panels and batteries and all its parts are handmade.

The young engineers’ team, formed in 2009 and comprising of 20 members, is steadily improving its ranking in the “Shell Eco Marathon Europe” races every year. Last year’s performance achieved 10^th position among 50 participants in the most competitive category of the race leaving behind it teams from industrial European countries with large budgets.

Another important success was attained by “Prometheus” in 2013. The NTUA team received the “Best team spirit award” among 200 competitors from different countries. The award pertained to the team’s promotion of Greek culture, the vigorous team work, spirit and enthusiasm. In addition, after hard training on safety methods and applying a rollover protection system at “Pyrforos II”, it received 2^nd place for the “Off-track Safety Award 2015”.

The next big step for “Prometheus team”, a dream yet to come true is constructing “Pyrforos U”: An Urban, electric vehicle with amazingly low running costs. “Taking advantage of the team’s know-how in designing efficient vehicles, we can now step up and construct a vehicle to compete in the ‘Urban-Concept’ category of ‘Shell Eco Marathon’ and get a big step closer into being able to mass produce a cheap, environmentally friendly vehicle that anybody could drive in a city environment. A true vehicle that would be Greek from top to bottom. The appropriate funding is now required”, the team’s members explained.