While North Americans gobble up record numbers of pricey, gas-guzzling SUVs, engineering students in Alberta are working on plans for the opposite: a cheap, fuel-efficient car for the world's poor.

The BUV, or "basic utility vehicle," is low-tech, inexpensive -- the Alberta students' car was built for less than $1,200 -- and rugged enough to handle run-down roads in developing countries.

"It's basically affordable transportation that can go through dirt roads, mud, swamplands, carry 1,000 pounds and up to five people, including the driver," explains Ryan O'Daly, who, with six other students from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, is trying to piece together a model in time for an international BUV competition taking place in three weeks.

The team's vehicle looks like a stripped-down Jeep on a souped-up lawn-mower motor. The four-wheel, front-wheel drive machine runs on an 8.5-horsepower engine. It's best suited for hot climates and flat topography, making it well suited for parts of South America, Africa and Asia.

It's not the type of weather or landscape most SAIT students are used to, but last year the school beat out undergraduate and masters students from American universities to win the Indianapolis-based Institute for Affordable Transportation's annual design contest.

The non-profit organization is tapping the minds of students -- low-cost research and development -- to develop a simple motor vehicle that can be affordably mass-produced in the developing world. Dubbed "cars for humanity," BUVs could do for transportation what Habitat for Humanity has done for housing.

"It's a lot more of an engineering challenge than it seems," says Will Austin, the institute's executive director, "even though it's a simple vehicle."

Ideally, BUVs should have 95 per cent fewer parts than typical cars, weigh no more than 227 kilograms, and sell for less than $1,300 (U.S.). Fuel efficiency is a priority: They're intended to run on gas or diesel at about 3.9 litres for every 100 kilometres travelled, using a 10-horsepower engine. The specifications call for an optimal travelling speed of only about 32 kilometres per hour, a slow but steady pace that would enable BUVs to be used as buses, ambulances or delivery vehicles with carrying capacities of up to 454 kilograms.

The institute has already tested a few early-model BUVs, including designs with three wheels, but Mr. Austin figures the prototype that meets the ideal design specifications is three years away.

The target market is small businesses, and the institute is banking on micro-loans from the United Nations, World Bank and other developed nations to fuel what Mr. Austin believes is a market poised to take off.

Mr. O'Daly says he was surprised to learn BUVs weren't already in production at any of the major transportation companies. He rattles off a list of improvements his group is making to last year's winning design.

A switch of a lever will allow the vehicle to go in reverse. Larger tires will give more clearance, and aggressive treads will help to grab the ground. Changes to steering will cut out some weight. Headlights and brake lights will be mounted on the roll cage to raise them out of the mud and they'll run on low-power light-emitting diodes or LEDs. By tweaking the engine, the top speed could reach 38 km/h.

"We've got ATV, golf cart, utility trailer. It's a mix of all of them," Mr. O'Daly says. "But what defines it is the power."

It would be nice be to one of the people who helped to design the Model T of the developing world, Mr. O'Daly says. But for now, his group is focused on the contest: "We're going to kick some butt," he says. "We're going for first again."

Dawn Walton is a reporter in The Globe and Mail's Calgary bureau.