In the year 2018, there was a shift in the goals and structure of Team Inspired Karters Formula Student. An experimental Electric Vehicle (EV) subsystem was set up to research the feasibility of building and participating in electrical vehicle–based races. This subsystem’s early success in the Formula Bharat Concept Challenge 2018, coupled with the relative stagnation of the non-electric vehicle, led the team to pivot completely to making electric vehicles under the moniker “Inspired Karters Electric”. 

The EV subsystem recruited additional workforce in the first semester of the academic year 2018–19 to facilitate this shift, after achieving 2nd place in the Concept Challenge held earlier that year. This meant that when the team took part in its second Concept Challenge on the 15th of July this year, it was on track to perform well.

The Formula Bharat Concept Challenge is a theory-based competition held before the main event—Formula Bharat. This one-day event has been held at Ather Energy—a Bangalore-based electric bike startup—for the last two years. The purpose of the contest is to ensure that teams are well-prepared to manage the electrical aspects of a racecar, especially with regard to safety. When asked about the competition, a team representative said, ‘It is mostly an electrical competition where teams must present their entire electrical design, right from the macro-level implementation of sensors down to the soldering of the PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards).’

This competition also assesses the care shown by the team in the documentation of designs, project management, procurement, and so on. Every aspect of how any given organization runs—the structure, leadership, management of both time and resources, short-term and long-term goals—is evaluated. According to Inspired Karters, that has been one of their strongest points, as the leadership has been highly effective and professional despite time constraints.

The judges are professional engineers who design and build vehicles themselves. ‘The advice and insights provided by the judges are much more valuable than the result itself’, the team representative said.  ‘The competition in this highly prestigious event is stiff. While established teams use this event to get their designs validated by industry experts, newer teams look for insights into their design before entering the fabrication phase.’

At the event, Inspired Karters defended their second-place result, finishing as the team with the best management and FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis—a document that lists every mode of failure in the car, its severity, and how it will be detected and resolved). According to a member, the team’s aim was not only to win the competition but also to prove that their design—already being manufactured in the boiler room—was safe and achievable. Currently, the team is at work on the fabrication phase as planned, aiming to be competition-ready by the end of January.