What’s better than a classic 1971 VW Beetle? Well, the students at the first technical school of Nicosia have proved that it may be an electric Beetle reports the Cypus Mail.
The teenagers have proved that vintage cars can be futuristic – albeit with a lot of hard work.
And if you’re not too hyped about the impressive feat of turning the Beetle electric, perhaps the installed air-conditioning and parking sensors might give you a jolt.
The project was unveiled by the transport ministry on Thursday, which funded the work with €25,000.
Perhaps most impressive is the fact that all the new parts were created on site, in the school’s labs.
The near total overhaul of the old Beetle required the combined efforts of students throughout the school, under the supervision of their teachers.
At the unveiling of the electric Beetle, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos emphasised the importance that electric cars will play in the future of mobility.
The minister praised the teenagers’ work – saying that they were the future road users of the island.
He reiterated that the European Council has decided that only zero emission vehicles will be sold in the EU from 2035 onwards – meaning that the whizz kids who worked on the Beetle are already ahead of the game.
Karousos explained that: “Our goal is for a quarter of new vehicle registrations to be electric by 2030 and for that to reach 100 per cent by 2035.”
The ambitious aim will be reached, he argued, by developing various strategies and implementing policies to promote electric cars.
The minister detailed that €30m will be made available for electric car subsidies, provided for by the EU’s recovery and resilience plan, with a further €15m to recall older pollutant cars. Another incentive will be the 1,000 car charging points for electric vehicles to be setup at a cost of €4m.
Karousos claimed that the two plans have already proved successful, stating that there have been about 8,000 applications to the subsidy programmes.
“It means that about one per cent of the population has said that if it receives funding then they are prepared to buy a zero emissions or low emissions car,” he said at the event.
