If you are wondering whether three liters of fuel is enough to get you through a tour around Turkey, don’t bother asking anymore. Driving the new hydrogen car SAHIMO, made by several Sakarya University students, it’s now possible to travel all the way from Edirne to Igdir on just three liters of fuel.
This new vehicle was created by members of the Sakarya University Advanced Technologies Implementation Group (SAITEM), who rolled up their sleeves in an effort to construct Europe’s most fuel-efficient vehicle. SAHIMO did manage to leave its Turkish competitors in the dust, while coming in third across Europe last year. Able to go 568 kilometers on just one liter of hydrogen, SAHIMO is the pride of Turkey.
Interestingly, this latest hydrogen-powered car, SAHIMO, comes in the wake of a previous project by SAITEM members, a solar powered vehicle they called the “SAGUAR.”
SAHIMO was voted the third-most fuel efficient vehicle in Europe in the 26th Shell Eco Marathon in 2008. Achieving a distance of 568 kilometers on just one liter of hydrogen, SAHIMO would theoretically be able to travel from Turkey’s eastern region of Igdir to Edirne in the west—a distance of around 1,744 kilometers—on just three liters of hydrogen.
SAHIMO, which cost $170,000 to build, weighs only 110 kilograms. The effort to create as lightweight a vehicle as possible means that SAHIMO is made up of 90 percent carbon fiber materials. This environmentally friendly hydrogen vehicle bears the license plate “90 SAHIMO 54.”
The work done by SAITEM these days began originally as homework for two students at Sakarya University in 2003; today research and development is carried out by a 40-member group.
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