A Solar Bike Crosses India, USA, & France

March 11, 20187 years ago Zachary Shahan 0 Comments

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While in Abu Dhabi for the 2018 Zayed Future Energy Prize, World Future Energy Summit, and Global EVRT events, I met an interesting character with a spirit of adventure in his genes — Sushil Pakala Reddy. Sushil, an energy engineer, is an IIT Bombay alumnus from Mumbai, India. He’s currently getting a master’s degree in Sustainability at HEC Paris, a university in Jouy-en-Josas.

In 2016, Sushil started a cause in India called “The SunPedal Ride” to raise awareness about solar energy. What is The SunPedal Ride? I’m glad you asked. This is an initiative whereby he rode a solar-powered electric bicycle around India and held public events and conversations to help raise awareness about solar power and electric vehicles. The ride was a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a motorised bicycle as well as a Limca Record for the longest journey on a solar powered electric bicycle. Sushil got covered by everyone from National Geographic to Redbull.

After meeting in Abu Dhabi, Sushil and I stayed in touch, and he wrote that he has done additional solar-powered electric bike rides in the US and France, “again with the focus on persuading common people to adopt solar energy and electric mobility in France and the USA west coast.” These were again done under the SunPedal Ride platform. The Science and Technology Division of the French Embassy and IFCCI supported his French ride as well.

Sushil has been widely covered in the media, and was also invited to the 2017 Solar Power International conference in Las Vegas to display the bike and share his experiences. Furthermore, he has released an e-book about the India ride on Amazon about it all. (Update: An e-book about the ride in France was also just published in French and English.)

Done yet? Not so much. He tells me, “I am planning more rides across the world on a solar powered electric bike to promote solar e-mobility and clean energy & transportation among the masses(similar to the solar impulse flight).”

If you want to suggest a route or offer support if he’s in your neighborhood, head over to The SunPedal Ride website and drop him a note.

By the way, one fun tidbit we learned when I let him know a few days ago that I scheduled this article for today — it’s both his birthday and my birthday today!