Project Yerel's T-1 EV charges through Turkish countryside

So much for the concept of starving college students. A group of engineering students from Turkey’s Istanbul University has built one cool-looking electric vehicle that toured the country last month. The car, designed as a prototype for future versions, wasn’t cheap, though, as more than $200,000 was sunk into it. Not exactly GM-splurges-on-the-Chevy-Volt numbers, but heady stuff for a college group. The car has a sleek look that may remind some of either General Motors’ EV or the first incarnation of the Honda Insight.

By Danny King
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Project Yerel

So much for the concept of starving college students. A group of engineering students from Turkey’s Istanbul University has built one cool-looking electric vehicle that toured the country last month. The car, designed as a prototype for future versions, wasn’t cheap, though, as more than $200,000 was sunk into it. Not exactly GM-splurges-on-the-Chevy-Volt numbers, but heady stuff for a college group. The car has a sleek look that may remind some of either General Motors’ EV or the first incarnation of the Honda Insight.

The T-1, the end result of Project YEREL, is estimated to have a single-charge range of almost 300 miles from its 30-kWh battery pack, which can fully charge in about four hours. The three-seat car (2+1 arrangement) weighs about 1,100 pounds and tops out at about 75 miles per hour.

The car was five years in the making and won a competition of sorts among 30 universities, according to the Daily Sabah. The upshot is that the vehicle took a tour of 25 Turkish cities covering almost 3,000 miles. It’s longest single-shot voyage was from Istanbul to Ankara, which covered about 270 miles. Find out more at the team’s website here.