Sustainable long-distance travel possible with hybrid bicycle

Founded by Sushil Pakala Reddy, an energy engineer and IIT Bombay alumnus, The SunPedal Ride is a movement to stimulate awareness about solar energy and clean transportation.

In 2016, Sushil toured around India on a solar-powered electric bicycle with a team comprising of Krunal Tailor, Himanshu Singh, and Rajendra Bhaskar. Their journey across northwest India passed through nine states/union territories, took 79 days, and totaled 7,500 kilometres. They organised events along the way to speak about renewables, showcasing solar lamps and mobile chargers. The trip earned Sushil a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a motorised bicycle and the achievement was featured in prominent publications, like National Geographic.

According to Sushil, “We plan to take this movement to reach out to as many people as we can and educate people about solar energy and sustainability which is the need of the hour.”

Last year, Sushil embarked upon two additional bike journeys—this time in the US and France—and spoke at the Solar Power International conference in Las Vegas.

He’s released e-books about his national and international bike rides, which can be purchased on Amazon. Proceeds of the e-book downloads will be used for raising funds to get solar power in a village school in Rajasthan via the NGO Hockey Village India.