Vrum, vrum! Beep, beep! Most members of our generation will recall movie superstar and main character Herbie. For those who missed out on the phenomenon, Herbie is the 1963 bug — or rather Volkswagen Beetle — that played the role of a race car in several movies, the latest of which featured Lindsay Lohan in 2005. “The Love Bug” had a mind of its own, could drive by itself and even had feelings. Well, Egypt's Herbie does not have a mind of its own, but it certainly will have one day, if the passion and motivation of its builders stays as strong as it is today. The Egyptian Herbie also has two siblings, both of which live in a workshop at Ain Shams University (ASU) in Cairo. Maybe one should start at the beginning of the story: even though the automotive industry seems to be doing everything but strive at the moment, despite promises by the current minister of industry to revive the Al-Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company, it is nevertheless flourishing on university grounds. Several graduation projects from the faculties of engineering at different universities in Egypt have focused on manufacturing different cars. One such car is called the ATV and is being manufactured at Cairo University. Its design is ready, and the final version will enter a competition in April 2014 organised by the Society of American Engineers as the first Egyptian and Arab car ever to take part in the event. The 16 members of the team designing and building the vehicle started the project with the aim of building the first one hundred per cent Egyptian car. The criteria by which the ATV will be judged are performance, endurance, design, automation and the ability to make an agreement with a local company to manufacture 4,000 vehicles annually. Egypt's Herbies, on the other hand, sit in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering. The school has an activity called the ASU Racing Team — yes, there are racing teams at Egypt's universities. Members recruited to the club have the chance to build a race car as their graduation project and to participate in three international competitions. “We want to bring students to the market who have the capability to manufacture a complete car after they graduate,” supervising professor Mohamed Abdel-Aziz told Al-Ahram Weekly. “After that, it is up to the private sector to fund such research or the public sector to adopt these ideas and skills — but of course, the return of investment will take a while to appear,” he added. So far, three “Herbies” have been designed, manufactured and assembled. All the materials and parts were produced locally, except for the engine and gearbox, which were imported. “This was the first time that we actually implemented something that we had learnt about in a theoretical environment,” Marianne Antoine, a member of the ASU Racing Team, said. Two of the race cars were made to participate in the Formula Student competition, which takes place seven times annually in seven different countries. A team of 53 members was appointed and chosen to design and build a single-seat formula vehicle that could drive a distance of 22km without encountering problems. The project is also evaluated according to its efficiency in cost, sustainability and performance, and students are even asked to create a business plan on how to market the car. “We wanted to create the trigger for Egypt's automotive manufacturing industry,” one of the team members stated. Last year, Egypt's team occupied 72nd place out of 90 during the competition. “Even though we only got the 72nd place out of 90 teams, we did overtake 18 teams that had much better resources and more money than we did. One of the foreign teams told us that their budget was 600,000 Euros, whereas our car cost less than LE100,000,” Robert Nader, one of the team members said. Currently, another team of 12 members is working on a vehicle that will participate in the Shell Eco-Marathon in which the focus is on fuel consumption optimisation. The competition measures the furthest distance a car can go with just one litre of fuel — a brilliant solution to Egypt's energy problems. The current car is expected to travel about 750 km per litre of fuel. “Joining such competitions helps us get closer to international teams who have scientifically overtaken us by light years. Being capable of competing with them although our resources and level of education are much more meagre than theirs feels great,” Mohamed Abdel-Salam, a graduating engineering student and member of the club told the Weekly. “Seeing the other teams also motivates us to work harder and sleep less,” Nader added. Abdel-Aziz explained why he was encouraging students to take on these projects. “Egypt has no Research and Development (R&D) in the automotive industry because it does not manufacture cars — it only assembles them. The know-how is there, but there has been no will up to now from the public and private sectors to actually take on a car-manufacturing business. Sponsors fund the projects out of their corporate social responsibility budget, not in terms of R&D. Some sponsors take the students to work on existing lines, but they do not ask them to innovate or start local manufacturing.” He also highlighted the fact that if Egypt is planning on having a strong automotive sector, it will need the will to do so and a government that wants to pursue it. Abdel-Aziz believes that the key to the automotive industry is having laws that can protect the sector until it is strong enough to compete with foreign manufacturers. “Our market is open to foreign cars at low prices. Egypt's first car will be very high in price and low in quality — that is the natural path of this industry because it needs time for trial and error in order to develop. This is why we are fulfilling the role of the university by teaching students skills in the automotive department so that they can use them when they graduate.” In Antoine's opinion, Egypt will be able to manufacture its own car in five to six years. Nader sees different prospects. “Even if we do not start manufacturing cars after we graduate, at least we will be able to make a difference in the system by detaching ourselves from the routine and thinking innovatively after all we have experienced here. We were lucky to have Mohammed Abdel-Aziz instructing us because he gives us the necessary push to do something.” Regarding the media talk about the Al-Nasr Automotive Company being revived, Abdel-Aziz said that he had not heard about this except on the news. “But university professors in the automotive departments should be the first people to be included in such a decision,” he concluded.
