Pilot project in Greece: VW turns the Aegean island into a smart e-paradise

Pilot project in Greece
VW is turning the Aegean island into a smart e-paradise

Volkswagen is starting a test run for the “Greece 2” program on a small island in the Aegean Sea. With the support of Athens, the vacation paradise is to be transformed into a pure electric island within five years. The importance of the project extends far beyond Greece, emphasizes Volkswagen.

The Greek government and the German car manufacturer Volkswagen have jointly given the go-ahead for the electrification of the Greek island of Astypalea. The first electric vehicles were put into operation on Wednesday – including the first fully electric police car in Greece.

VW boss Herbert Diess (r) with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)

The aim is for Astypalea to gradually get a completely new transport system with e-cars, busses, scooters and e-bikes in the coming years, and to get its energy solely from green electricity in the future. Ridesharing services and car sharing are also intended to complement the so far hardly developed public transport system and make it more attractive. This is intended to reduce individual traffic overall. In total, Athens and VW want to invest around ten million euros on the island for this.

The importance of the project extends far beyond Greece, emphasized Volkswagen. Astypalea is a “future laboratory for decarbonization in Europe”, said Herbert Diess on the occasion of the celebratory project start, at which the group boss presented the first four electric vehicles of the types ID.3 and ID.4. They are used by local authorities such as the police, the municipal administration and the port police. These are the beginnings of a transformation that will fundamentally change Astypalea in the years to come. “On the island, we are researching in real time what motivates people to switch to e-mobility and what incentives are needed for the transition to a sustainable lifestyle.”

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recalled that Astypalea is known as the butterfly island, its outline on satellite images and maps resembles a butterfly. The butterfly is a good picture for the vulnerability of the planet threatened by climate change, he warned. “We don’t have time, we have to act quickly.”

The project on the Aegean island is part of Greece’s national development and residency program “Greece 2.0”, with which the country wants to set the course for climate neutrality and digitization. Just a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Mitsotakis announced that Greece would bring forward the phase-out of coal-fired power generation from 2028 to 2025. “What we are implementing in Astypalea points the way to a world that is greener, cleaner and more sustainable,” said Mitsotakis on Wednesday.

In order to gain specific knowledge from the planned transformation, the project is accompanied by a scientific study by the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and the Greek University of the Aegean Sea. The focus should be on the residents of Astypalaia and their attitudes towards this change, but also on the reactions of the approximately 70,000 tourists who come to Astypalaia in the summer.

“Greece 2.0”: Further island projects are already planned

A total of around 1,500 combustion engines have to be replaced by e-mobiles – the Greek government supports the residents in purchasing them with premiums of up to 12,000 euros. The purchase of an e-taxi is subsidized with 15,000 euros. The sums are twice as high as the usual subsidies for electric cars in Greece. A comprehensive network of private and public charging stations is also to be created on the island. The first twelve charging stations are already in place. The vehicles are to be operated solely with green electricity from solar power plants and wind turbines. A new solar park is planned for this by 2023, which will supply around three megawatts of green electricity and not only cover the entire demand for e-mobiles, but also more than half of the island’s demand. Another pillar of the mobility concept for Astypalea are field trials for autonomous driving. To do this, however, the island’s 70-kilometer road network must first be renewed.

So far, the island in the southern Aegean has been supplied almost exclusively with electricity from diesel generators; according to Volkswagen, CO2 emissions amount to almost 5,000 tons per year. The aim of the project is to reduce the island’s CO2 emissions by 80 percent and energy costs by 30 percent by 2026.

With almost 100 square kilometers, Astypalea has an area similar to that of Sylt, but only around 1300 inhabitants. Sylt, on the other hand, has around 18,000 residents. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Fragkogiannis, who is responsible for economic diplomacy, Astypalea was chosen because of its size. On this manageable island, the energy system and the mobility offers can be “completely changed and you can observe how the project is changing the community”.

The Greek government is already planning further. The next pilot project is to start on the island of Chalki, 37 square kilometers west of Rhodes, where only about 500 people live. Athens has allegedly already won the French car brand Citroen, the construction company Vinci and Akuo Greece, which specializes in climate-neutral energy generation, as partners. The agreement is expected to be signed in June.

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