Eleven Ugandan college students believe they can bring affordable transportation to rural Africa with a home-grown, dirt-cheap car assembled from farm equipment.

The prototype of the "Poor Man's Car" isn't much to look at, fashioned as it is from sheet metal, wood seats and a diesel engine pulled from a corn mill, but the design and materials would be refined should the car ever see production. Moses Sebulime and his classmates at Makerere University believe the utilitarian runabout could bring mobility to the masses, much like the Tata Nano.

"The maintenance cost of the Poor Man's Car would be minimal as the parts are all locally produced," Sebulime told Wired.com. "It also will be a perfect alternative in rural settings as the engine can be reattached and used for other activities, such as accessories to agricultural machinery."

It's no coincidence that Sebulime wants to do for Africa what the Nano could do for India. He came up with the idea after finishing an internship at the Indian automaker.

The car made its debut at last month's Makerere University Stakeholder's Conference, and the students spent about $4,500 building it. Mechanical engineering professor Dr. Yasin Naku Ziraba said the car "is in its very infancy" and the cost would come down significantly should it see mass production. The university is looking to the government for help getting the car built sometime next year, arguing it could improve the lives of countless people.

"Our people in rural areas have been suffering with transport (problems)," Sebulime told the audience at the stakeholders' conference, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. "We have now provided the solution. All we need is the government to support us and we start the second stage of sophisticating this technology before we can hit the market."

Hitting the market won't be easy, but Sebulime and his classmates are gaining support. The Monitor praised their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in an editorial that said the students "have given us reason to retain some faith" in the university. "Either the university or government or both should come to the aid of these students," the paper wrote. "We should not let innovation suffer a stillbirth."

from wired …

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