First it was ‘Tuke Tuke’, a car built by students of the University of Benin in May 2014. A car that, according to the Media Manager of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Mr Precious Okolobo, passed international technical evaluation in Rotterdam, Netherland.
The car was to race at the 2014 Shell Eco-Marathon in Netherlands along with cars from 25 mostly advanced countries. It was a major feat in automotive technology innovation for Nigeria.
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2015 ABUCAR from Ahmadu Bello University Students
From ‘Tuke Tuke’, students from the Mechanical Engineering department of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, has taken it a step further to manufactured two eco-friendly energy efficient cars.
The locally-made cars named ABUCAR 1 and ABUCAR 2, manufactured in collaboration with Shell Nigeria, were displayed on 16 March 2015 on campus.
According to Dr. Mohammed Dauda, the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, the eco-friendly energy efficient car will participate in Shell Eco Marathon Competition in May 2015.
Dr. Dauda said that they started this project when Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited invited ABU to participate in Shell Eco-Marathon Competition.
About the Shell Eco-marathon challenges
Shell Eco-marathon challenges student teams from around the world to design, build and race ultra-energy efficient vehicles. The winners are the teams that go the furthest using the least amount of energy. All cars are expected to pass a strict technical inspection to check that they are fit for purpose and safe before they are allowed to race.
This competition is held in America, Europe and Asia. The ABUCAR will be participating in the European race in Netherlands in May this year.
“All materials used for this car were sourced locally. Though, there are things that we did not fabricate ourselves, you will be surprised that some of the components like the electrical, we just looked at an old computer system and then adopted some of the components that were useful to us. So, this is one example of what we did, which is recycling, otherwise, I will say 100 per cent of the things we used were produced here in Zaria”.
– Mohammed Dauda, the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria
This is a practical demonstration of what the Nigerian and African youths can achieve if giving the right platform and opportunity. Well done guys!
