By Skandha Gunasekara - From The Ceylon Today - 19/10/2014
It appears
that Sri Lanka will be in the international spotlight this December when the
Lankan owned company Code Gen International reveals its first fully electric
super car, 'Vega'. Brainchild of Code Gen CEO Harsha Subasinghe, this project
was initiated to show that Sri Lanka can take on projects of this magnitude and
successfully deliver.
Video from Youtube:-
Code Gen,
privately owned by CEO Harsha Subasignhe, is one of the leading software
providers of travel boxes to prominent airlines such as Emirates and Virgin
Airlines. A branch of the company has also been opened in the United Kingdom.
Subasinghe
gathered 25 experts from various fields ranging from engineering consultants to
software developers and initiated this project in April this year. An
investment and funding of Rs 30 million was granted to Subasinghe for the
research and development of this project.
Beshan
Kulapala (37), one of the 25 experts, has a PhD in electrical engineering from
Arizona and was called in from his 13 year career at Intel, a leading
manufacturer of microprocessors based in Oregon, USA, to lead this project as
Project Manager.
"What
really convinced most of us here, was Subasinghe's unwavering faith and
confidence in this venture and our abilities. While other investors would have
been wary of failure, Subasinghe was convinced that we can achieve where others
fear failure," said Dr. Kulapala.
He went on
to say that Sri Lanka producing a super car is a step forward for the country
with regards to the country's technological advancements.
"It is
a milestone in the island's history for us to be manufacturing a super car. As
far as I know Sri Lanka may be the only country in South Asia at present to be
producing a fully electronic super car."
Among the
other experts are Thilak Dissanayake, an engineering consultant specializing in
aerodynamics with 15 years experience at airline manufacturing giant Boeing;
Pabasara Karunanayake (33), Project Manager at Code Gen International and an
engineering consultant on project Vega; and Sasiranga De Silva (28), an
engineering consultant and lecturer at Moratuwa University, to name a few.
The concept
design was done by Dashantha Gunaratne.
Three key
design features
Coming back
to the matter at hand - the creation of Sri Lanka's first fully electric super
car, there are three key design concepts the team from Code Gen hopes to
achieve. The ability for the car to have an acceleration of 0-100 kmph in less
than four seconds is one of those concepts. One of the main reasons behind this
design concept is that the leading fully electronic super-are at present, the
Tesla Roadster, has an acceleration of 0–100 kmph in just 3.9 seconds.
"If we
are to compete with the best the least we can do is achieve that same standard.
If we can tweak the Vega car to go faster it will be a considerable
achievement," observed
Dr.
Kulapala.
The second
design concept would be a top speed of 220 kmph, while the third concept being
the Vega to have a travel capacity of 240 miles with one charge. The Tesla
Roadster has a top speed of 201 kmph and travel range of 245 miles with one
charge.
One of the
most unique aspects of this project is the fact that this super car will be
completely made from scratch in Sri Lanka.
Except for
the two motors and the battery cell, which are brought down from the United
States, every part of the car, from the chassis and body design to the cooling
system, will be made entirely in Sri Lanka.
"The
two motors and the battery cell were brought down from the US because for one
the motors will just take too long to make in Sri Lanka and the other problem
we faced was that the raw material for the battery is quite expensive and
unavailable in the island," Dr. Kulapala told Ceylon Today.
Each engine
has a capacity of 450 Horsepower (HP) which results in a total engine capacity
of 900 HP for the Vega which will be fully controlled by software. The battery
cell is a LiFePO4 (Lithium) battery pack.
Latest
technology
The super
car would have the latest technology available used in its creation such as the
entire body of the vehicle being made out of a material known as carbon fibre –
an extremely strong and light fibre-reinforced polymer which contains carbon
fibres.
Everything,
from the car's electronics to its mechanics and software will be state of the
art and will all be made by the team from Code Gen. "More than 25 central
processing units (CPU) will be used in the vehicle, which requires many a
complex software. We will not be copying or duplicating software already used
by other companies, instead we will be creating our very own software for this
project," said Dr. Kulapala.
With regard
to the dynamics of the car it would have a length of 4,565 mm (4.5 m), height
of 1,195 mm (1.9m) and a width of 1,969mm (1.9m). The vehicle would weigh 1,400
kg upon completion.
According to
Dr. Kulapala there are many advantages of the Vega being fully electronic, the
most significant being that it would have no carbon footprint, which is the
amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is caused by an organization, event,
product or person. "Since it is fully electronic there will be no carbon
emissions whatsoever. No fuel is needed as it's fully charged and functions on
electricity."
However he
added that the only carbon footprint that would be left behind from using the
Vega would be emissions made by the thermal power plants that provide the
electricity to charge the vehicle making the use of vehicles such as the Vega
bringing pollution a to minimum.
Another
advantage of an electronic vehicle is the lack of noise pollution as an
electric motor has minimum emission of sounds unlike combustion vehicles. Also,
the fact that there are a very few moving parts when compared to a combustion
vehicle means that common problems found in combustion vehicles are not
prevalent in electronic vehicles resulting in far less expenditure on the
vehicle as whole by the owner.
Another
unique feature of this electric vehicle is that it would have 100% torque at 0
revolutions per minute (rpm) which is the opposite of conventional combustion
vehicles which gather torque the faster they go.
Apart from
the 25 experts, there is a full time staff of eight individuals who would be
doing some of the work on the ground. Three army personnel are also assisting
in the project.
"We are
very grateful to the Urban Development Authority for providing us with the
location to carry out this venture as well providing us with army personnel to
help us out," remarked
Dr.
Kulapala.
Among the
eight full time staff are Varuna Ruwan Maduranga (27), Ruwan Seneratne (40),
Rashiga Walallawita (26), Shiranga Ariyawansha (26), Supun Amarasinghe (26),
Senal Devasurendra (23) and Dilshan Prageeth Siriwardhana (28)
The three
Army personnel are Chinthaka Srinath Wijesekara (28), Buddhika Jayaranga (26)
and Nihal Kumara Thebuwana (45).
Concerning
the name 'Vega',
Dr. Kulapala
acknowledged that it was derived from the Sinhala term 'Vegaya'.
"We
wanted to bring in a Sri Lankan aspect to this venture and what better way than
to influence the cars name with our mother tongue?"
With regard
to why Code Gen took up this venture of building an electronic super car
instead of building a more practical product such as an electronic car or three-wheeler
for domestic use,
Dr. Kulapala
stated that taking up a project of this magnitude and complexity shows that the
company has the capacity to push boundaries. Likewise, once this supercar is
successfully completed it shows both consumers and investors that Code Gen and
the team creating Vega can effectively create other more practical vehicles
such as electronic car or three-wheeler.
"If we
can show the world that we can manufacture a super car that can compete with
likes of the Tesla Roadster, it will show that we guarantee a top notch product
when we take on a task such as a fully electronic car or three-wheeler for
domestic purposes".
Dr. Kulapala
further added that following the completion of the Vega super car they would
look to manufacture electric cars and three-wheelers for domestic and
commercial use.
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