BLACK #INVENTS:::FUTURE OF CAR IN NIGERIA. A Wind- And Solar-Powered Car, Segun Oyeyiola

Hi fellow Nigerians, I’m on a mission to build Nigeria’s future car. I want to reduce the carbon dioxide emission(s) going to our atmosphere that leads to global warming amongst others.

Segun Oyeyiola, student of the Electronic and Electrical Department of Nigerian Obafemi Awolowo University, turned a Volkswagen Beetle into an environment friendly off-road vehicle. He used free scrap parts donated by friends and family. Cost for additional parts was just $6,000. Oyeyiola´s ultimate aim is to build Nigeria´s future car.

To build the eco-car he installed a large solar panel on top of the Beetle and inserted a wind turbine under the hood. The turbine allows air to flow into the grill while the car is moving; this gets the turbine’s rotors moving and helps charging the battery installed at the back of the car.

He told FastCompany:

“I wanted to reduce carbon dioxide emission[s] going to our atmosphere that lead to climate change or global warming which has become a new reality, with deleterious effect: seasonal cycles are disrupted, as are ecosystems; and agriculture, water needs and supply, and food production are all adversely affected.”

Even if the car is not perfect yet – the battery takes at least four to five hours to charge – Oyeyiola will not be detracted from perfecting his innovation as he told Co.Exist his goal after graduation is to

“keep improving on it, until it becomes Nigeria’s future car”.

Achieving this feat was not easy, “because I have had to work and study at day and night, and most of the time there is no electricity. I therefore I had to look for alternative means or go in search of locations where I could get electricity to use. Also, when I first started most of my friends tried to discourage me by saying that our country has not been able to build a car that uses fuel let alone solar. I simply told them that we the youths should be the agents of good change in our own little way.”  

Regardless of his doggedness, the year five engineering student still faced other challenges. “Asides the lack of electricity, getting the right materials and text books to study as well as other needed tools was difficult. But the most prominent of them was the lack of funds.
“I started using my personal funds which I obtained by helping people to do their projects and a little fund my parents also contributed towards the project.”

On comments made about his needing to develop a material made of tiny solar cells to form the whole top and bonnet with it, the inventor said, “what I built is called a prototype which means that, this is not the final look of the car; but something just to bring it to life for people to see how it is likely to look and work. I have the original paper design. My main objective is to build a car that uses winds and solar energy for its movement by using existing technology. The use of tiny solar cells will not give me the required power I needed to drive the car,” he said. 

Although he hasn’t yet entered it in any competition, he is optimistic that with the right support his invention will be a future car for Nigeria and Africa at large, “because it’s basically designed based on our climatic conditions and no one can do this for us if we did not come up with our own product.”  

Not worried about his initiative being hijacked, Oyeyiola said, “it’s only a paper design that can be stolen if you allow them to steal it but no one can steal someone’s ideas because they can’t understand it as you do.”

So far responses to the innovation have been good an elated Oyeyiola said. “Everyone likes it and they are willing to start driving it around town because of its low cost of maintenance. I developed a simple software that can be installed on our laptops and smart phones to tell us the battery level, the weather condition, the distance we can cover during different weather conditions and GPS location of the car,” he added.

Not resting his oars on building a solar car, he has also come up with a Wireless Smoke Detector System with wide detecting scope, fast response and high sensitivity which can be used in gas leakage detecting equipments in homes and industry. Giving details on the gadget, he said, “It is also suitable for detecting of i-butane, propane, methane, alcohol, hydrogen and smoke.”

Ensuring that his creations reach as far and as wide as possible, Oyeyiola created of his is the, Cube Satellite using solar energy which is meant to be in high altitude for collecting data like temperature, atmospheric pressure, earth magnetic field, humidity, gasses and its GPS location which will give local farmers necessary information to know when, how and where to plant. 

Passionate about every single one of his works, Oyeyiola cannot exactly say that anyone is more precious to him than the other. He is also not sure he would want to sell the idea to any individual or establishment to carry on with it. “I would rather they fund me to put together a team to help me perfect them and make them commercial.”

As a young Nigerian, the 30 year old agrees that there are problems everywhere in the world. But then urges all to, “endeavour to provide solutions to these problems in our little way. We should continue learning new things apart from what we have leant in the university. And it’s better to start anything we wanted to do now. Let’s do what will make us happy and that which will not affect our fellow being negatively.”