In a bid to promote green energy, engineering students from a technical high school college in Mexico have designed a motorcycle that runs on self-generated energy.

The students, from the city of Oaxaca, which is located in the southern Mexican state by the same name, have designed a motorbike that runs on its own generated energy, without using any combustion.

It can carry up to 110 kilograms (242 pounds) and run at a speed of more than 60 kilometres (37 miles) an hour with an engine that generates its own energy — transforming electric energy into mechanical energy.

Students, Victor Garcia and Raul Grajales, say their prototype called R-Walker, is an innovative invention for eco-friendly vehicles and could help reduce dependency on non-renewable fuels such as gasoline and diesel.

Based on the principle of converting energy through speed and distance travelled, the engine becomes self-sustaining, generating more than 2,000 revolutions per minute.

“The project is a prototype that generates its own energy as it goes along: As it goes faster and covers longer distances, it generates more energy. In that way, you don’t have to charge the battery every 6-8 hours. You also avoid having to fill up the tank with petrol or I have to charge again. We call this auto-sustainability, meeting with the worldwide ideals of leaving behind hydrocarbons,” said eco-motorbike designer, Victor Garcia.

Apart from its self-sustaining engine, the body of the bike was built using bits of bicycles and iron, which were reused by students.

That is why the bike is cheap to make, said Professor Alejandro Villavicencio, the head of the school of robotics at Oaxaca’s high school college, who oversaw the development of the eco bike and managed to get the financial resources needed for the project to become a reality.

“It’s a product which can be developed on a very low cost, more of less between 3,000 and 4,000 pesos (RM693—RM924) because it is built with recycled products,” Villavivencio said.

Eco-motorbike co-designer, Raul Grajales, said the bike represents huge potential savings for bikers.

“With this, we have reduced the use of 200 batteries a day and seventy per cent of pollution, because it does not contaminate and have zero emissions and we use one battery every 5-10 years,” said Grajales.

The original idea was conceived as a project to collaborate with mobility in rural Oaxaca where a student must walk several hours to get to school.

The development of the bike helped the students and their teacher win a gold medal at the international competition of robotics, “Exporecerca”, held in Spain.

They were selected from more than 200 students from different parts of the world.