The initiative for the competition comes from Enviu, a Rotterdam organization that focuses on sustainable innovation. The goal is to produce a cleaner tuctuc and a higher income for their drivers, most of whom are poor. The millions of three-wheelers are responsible for a large proportion of the air pollution in Asia.

The ten-year-old Indian taxi that the TU/e team is working on in the Automotive Engineering Science lab arrived on campus in October 2008. Laugeman: “We did not only need to make the tuctuc more environmentally friendly, but we also had to repair it. The trouble is that here in the Netherlands we do not have the spare parts that they do have in India. We were forced to improvise a lot.”

Moreover, the tuctuc has to meet the wishes of the Indian drivers. Laugeman: “If this were different, we would have worked with solar panels, for instance, but that would be too expensive.” In the end the TU/e team decided on a microhybrid system, i.e. a start-stop system. This ensures that the engine cuts out when the vehicle is slowing down and coming to a standstill, and does not start again until the driver steps on the gas. This prevents the engine from being let idle, which can result in a sizeable saving in fuel. The so-called TU/e-upgrade-kit, which could be mounted in existing tuctucs, is alleged to cost some two hundred dollars - which Laugeman calls a very reasonable price.

Final
The Eindhoven tuctuc will be shipped on Monday 18 May. In July Laugeman and Van der Tas themselves are also departing for India for the final, together with their team members. There is a chance that one of the relatively environmentally friendly upgrade-kits will actually be produced. If the TU/e-kit does not make it, then Laugeman and Van der Tas will try to set up an enterprise next autumn to sell the kits./.