By Aris Galanopoulos

The program “Astypalea: Smart, Sustainable Island” has entered its next phase, perhaps the most anticipated one thus far, and its introduction brought wide smiles and intense emotions: the delivery of the first electric vehicles to residents of the island has begun!

A few days ago, a Volkswagen e-up! and two Seat MÓ scooters were delivered to residents of the island. The three vehicles were ordered at the end of last year and are the first private electric vehicles circulating on the roads of the island, though in the coming weeks an ID.3 and an ID.4 are also set to be delivered.

Both the Volkswagen e-up! And the Seat MÓs were ordered at preferential prices through the specialized online platform astypalea-sustainable-island.gr, and all of the vehicles are to benefit from significant subsidies offered by the Hellenic Republic and the Volkswagen Group in cooperation with Kosmocar.

The e-up!, which recently became available to order again in Germany after a months-long interruption due to high demand (last year, with 30,800 deliveries, the car took second place among the country’s most popular electric vehicles), features electric drive power of 61 kW/83 PS, can reach up to 256 km, and can be charged in as little as an hour.

The delivery of electric vehicles to private residents of Astypalea follows the introduction of electric vehicles to public services of the island, namely the Police, the Coast Guard, the Municipal Authority and the Civil Aviation Service, at the beginning of last summer.

A version of this article was previously published in Greek at kathimerini.gr.