Greek islands electrified
More and more islands are converting to electric: in June, VW declared that it would completely electrify the Greek island of Astypalea. Now Citroën is following suit and taking on the island of Chalki.
On the island of Chalki, about 30 square kilometres in size and not far from Rhodes, a revolution is underway: the banishment of combustion cars and the full electrification of the vehicle fleet on the island. Together with an importer, a construction and infrastructure company and an energy supplier, the car company Citroën wants to convert the entire island to sustainable energy. Of course, this also includes the right infrastructure, i.e. charging points and people who know how to maintain such electric vehicles. Citroën even goes so far as to take back the leased vehicles after four years and then donate them to the island.
Electricity is generated from wind and sun, because there is plenty of it here. Switching to electric on an island and in a defined area also provides valuable experience in the supply of electricity and the maintenance of electrical infrastructure. In addition, problem solutions can be experimented with on a small scale. These findings then flow directly into the development and expansion of electric mobility on the mainland.
Halki is not the only electric island: as mentioned above, VW chose Astypalea as a test lab. Renault chose Porto Santo north of Madeira. Other islands that have fully committed themselves to electric mobility are Belle-Île-en-Mer south of Brittany and Fernando de Noronha in Brazil.
A small fly in the ointment on Halki: the models of the vehicles also made available to the police do not really go fast. They can't do more than 45 km/h, so car chases are out of the question. On the other hand, they can easily block the narrow streets of the main town of the same name and thus catch criminals.