It all started when Abyudh Mamidala, a Class 8 student from Hyderabad, returned home from school one day with the news of his school’s upcoming science fair. He needed a novel project idea for the fair. On hearing this, his father Prashanth Mamidala suddenly grew excited, because he had an idea that he had been mulling over for quite some time.
Speaking to The Better India, the software engineer says, “I travel 30 to 40 km to and from my office every day. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this. Electric vehicles are a boon for commuters to have to deal with increasing fuel costs, but they are costly,” he rues.
“They can cost up to Rs 1 lakh and more, making it impossible for the common people to use them.” Having always been keen to do something in green technology, Prashanth found his son’s science project the perfect opportunity to test the waters before diving right in.
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The project idea he came up with in August 2022 was simple albeit revolutionary — turning a bicycle into an electric vehicle.
“But within a month, by September 2022, I had launched my startup ‘Mamidala e-bikes’ which now sees enthusiastic customers from across the country,” Prashanth says.
An electric cycle business born from a science project
As Prashanth and Abyudh began ideating on the project, they decided that the best thing to start with was an old cycle lying at home. Clueless about how to proceed, the father-son duo began watching YouTube videos on mechanics. Prashanth even reached out to a friend who was an expert.
“Coming from a software engineering background, initially it was tough for me to understand the EV market and the specifics – how the battery works, how to fix the motor if it stopped working – everything was new to me,” he says. “We did a lot of experimentation in August 2022 and within a month we had created a basic prototype.” In the process, he adds with a laugh, they ended up burning a lot of controllers trying to understand what connects the cycle and the battery.
After multiple trials of turning the cycle into an electric one, the final design was ready, within weeks.
The cycle, Prashanth says, comprised of a 250W motor, an electric brake system, a headlight, an electric lock, a charging port, an accelerator, a controller, a chain shaft, and a freewheel.
These parts made a kit that could be attached to an ordinary bicycle to turn it into an electric vehicle.
The next step was to test it out.
Prashanth recounts that the first time he took the cycle out for a ride, several people on the street stopped him, asking what this unusual bicycle could do. This, he says, sparked the idea of a startup in him.