‘I could have been India’s Elon Musk’: The maths teacher who built a solar car from scratch

An Indian man has gone viral for his creation of a solar-powered car, a solo project 11 years in the making.

Bilal Ahmed, a maths teacher from Srinagar in Kashmir, made it his aim to build a ‘luxurious’ and sustainable vehicle that is not just for the super wealthy.

Soaring fuel prices in the northern region have made his invention even more timely. While Tesla’s continued absence in India means the solar panel-adorned design has caught the imagination of car enthusiasts.

“Cars like Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW are just a dream for a common person. Only a few people are able to afford it while it remains a dream for others to drive such cars and roam in [them]. I thought of something to give a luxurious feel to the people,” he told the Rising Kashmir newspaper.

It’s been hailed as the Valley’s first solar car. The Jammu and Kashmir region of India is one of the country’s coolest, with typically “gloomy” weather, he said. “I used solar panels which can give higher efficiency even in low sunlight days.”

Ahmed’s creation is all the more remarkable for having been achieved without any external funding. The father-of-two says he has spent more than Rs 15 lakh (€18,200) building the fully-automatic car, after studying various 1950s models and networking with other experts.

“When I began the project and even after I completed it, no one provided me with any financial assistance; if I would have got the necessary support, perhaps I would have been India’s Elon Musk,” he told reporters.

The first notable thing about Ahmed’s car is that nearly every available surface is covered in solar panels, from the bonnet to the rear windshield.

Maximising the amount of energy that could be generated from the sedan’s relatively small surface area was key