No truck engine needed: IIT Delhi engineer creates a new kind of fridge

IIT Delhi graduate Shaivee Malik and her co-founders are tackling India's cold-chain challenge with Yotuh Energy, a climate-tech startup developing electric refrigeration systems that keep food and other temperature-sensitive cargo cold even when delivery vehicles switch off their engines.Meet Shaivee Malik, IIT Delhi alumna who built a fridge that runs without truck engine (Image/@Shaivee Malik)A young IIT Delhi alumna and her co-founders are taking on one of India’s most overlooked logistics problems with a deceptively simple idea: keep the cooling running even when the truck stops.When a refrigerated truck switches off its engine, the food inside should not have to pay the price.That problem led IIT Delhi alumna Shaivee Malik, along with Vivek Mahindrakar and Dharmik Bapodara, to build Yotuh Energy, a climate-tech startup developing electric refrigeration systems that work independently of a vehicle’s engine.The company says its technology can cut refrigeration running costs by up to 75% while eliminating the need to burn diesel simply to keep cargo cold. FROM FORMULA RACING TO COLD-CHAIN INNOVATIONMalik’s engineering journey began on the racetrack. During her time at IIT Delhi, she was part of AXLR8R Formula Racing, the institute’s Formula Student team, where she and her teammates worked on designing and building electric race cars. Her LinkedIn profile lists IIT Delhi as her alma mater from 2017 to 2021 and identifies her work with Yotuh Energy in Chennai.The experience gave the trio more than technical skills. It taught them how to build hardware, solve problems under pressure and turn an engineering concept into something that can operate in the real world. After graduating, they wanted to apply that experience to a climate problem. They eventually zeroed in on cold-chain logistics, a sector where reliable refrigeration is essential, yet expensive and often dependent on diesel.A REFRIGERATOR THAT DOESN’T NEED THE TRUCK ENGINETraditional truck refrigeration can depend on the vehicle’s engine, meaning diesel may be consumed even when the truck is stationary.Yotuh’s answer is to separate the two. Its eRIL (Electric Refrigeration for Intracity Logistics) system uses battery power to run refrigeration independently of the vehicle. That means the truck can stop, idle less, or even suffer a breakdown, without the cooling automatically stopping. The system can be retrofitted to both internal-combustion and electric vehicles.The company’s newer product messaging describes the same principle bluntly: the vehicle may stop, but the cooling doesn’t have to.SMART COOLING FOR INDIA’S LAST MILEThe technology is designed particularly for small commercial vehicles, an important part of India’s intracity delivery network.Yotuh says its adaptive cooling system can respond automatically to operating conditions, while door sensors help manage cooling during repeated delivery stops. Its systems also provide temperature monitoring and live operational visibility.The company says its customers have already completed more than 1,000 temperature-sensitive deliveries covering over 3 lakh kilometres, with reported temperature compliance of 90–95% in real operations.That matters for everything from dairy and ice cream to frozen foods, where a broken cold chain can turn a delivery problem into product loss.FROM A SMALL STARTUP TO A FUNDED CLIMATE-TECH COMPANYYotuh Energy was founded in 2022, first registered in Delhi before the team moved to Chennai for incubation at IIT Madras. The founders’ backgrounds remain central to the company’s identity: Malik in biotechnology, Mahindrakar in mechanical engineering and Bapodara in production and industrial engineering.The startup later raised Rs 1.53 crore in funding, with the capital aimed at advancing product development, testing and operations.The company has also moved beyond prototypes and pilots. Its LinkedIn updates show deployments involving last-mile vehicles such as the Tata Ace, including applications for dairy and ice-cream distribution.THE BIGGER IDEA: MAKE COLD CHAIN CHEAPER AND CLEANERYotuh is not positioning itself merely as a refrigeration supplier. Its larger pitch is to make refrigerated transportation accessible to smaller operators who may otherwise find conventional systems too expensive.The company says its technology can save 3–36 tonnes of CO2 per unit annually, depending on usage, while reducing refrigeration running costs by as much as 75 percent. For Malik and her co-founders, the journey from an IIT Delhi racing team to India’s cold-chain sector is ultimately about applying engineering where it can have an everyday impact.And the idea is strikingly simple: if a truck doesn’t need to keep its engine running to keep food cold, why should it?- EndsPublished By: Apoorva AnandPublished On: Aug 24, 2026 15:39 IST