Pedestrians on campus can see a new electric car zip across the university because a Ball State University student won a scholarship contest.
Junior architecture major Jagjeet Singh Chahal received a $1,000 scholarship and a 100 percent electric car for Ball State during the university's Earth Day celebration Tuesday on University Green.
Chahal won The Miles Revolution Video Contest, which was sponsored by Miles Electric Vehicles. The company gave the university an $18,400 electric car that emits no emissions because Chahal put a video on YouTube for the contest that got the most views.
Chahal's video had more than 24,000 views, which was about 2,000 more than the next most popular video, he said.
Chahal said it took him four hours to make the video, which demonstrated the responsibility people have to take care of their "colorful world."
It felt good to have his movie win the contest, Chahal said, and he was happy he passed the word around about sustainability.
"It was worth it," he said.
He said sustainable structures were important to him because he uses them in each of his designs.
"I just didn't believe it at first, but I had to because it was true," he said.
He said he would buy a camera and then donate the rest of his scholarship to National Organization of Minority Architecture Students.
Mike Schatz, regional sales manager of Miles Electric Vehicles, said the car has a 25,000-mile battery life before the six 12-volt batteries need to be recharged.
The car goes 25 mph and has no way of changing gears as it has a switch on the dashboard to switch the car from going into forward and reverse, Schatz.
Instead of a place where people put in a gas nozzle for filling up, people can put in a plug from their outlet to charge the vehicle, Schatz.
Director of Transportation Sue Weller said the car would be used for postal routes and will examine telephone lines from Monday through Friday.
"It's really the next logical step for us," she said.
She said the university department of transportation looks into new, sustainable technologies for its fleet.
Miles Electric Vehicles is developing a car that is 100 percent electric but can drive as fast as 80 mph. She said the cost of the new vehicle would keep the university buying more of the cars.
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