Words By Dionysis Nanos
When one thinks of VW many things can come to mind, from the Beetle, the Golf and even the Bugatti Veyron to such failures like the Phaeton and the early DSG gearboxes that would go on strike more often than a British Leyland worker in 1976. But, what most people think when they hear the word Volkswagen is, undeniably, the emissions scandal. Everything and anything has been written about it so I’m not going to go into detail, but the bottom line is that such a bitter taste was left in the public’s mouth that not only did it effectively kill the diesel market (good riddance really) but more importantly it meant that VW couldn’t be trusted to change; couldn’t be trusted to progress. Sure the Group has released electric cars in recent years and they have been selling well, but the car world most often times doesn’t forgive that easily. People are still talking about the lasting damage of the emissions scandal and how whatever electrification attempt the VW Group is making is just a facade to turn heads away from it, but the fact of the matter is they are trying, and the latest of these tries is also the most ambitious one. Welcome everybody to Astypalaia, the first (and hopefully not the last) green Greek island.
While the island of Astypalaia has been making headlines over the past few months, ever since both the Greek Government and the VW Group announced their co-operation in making the island green, very few people actually know anything about it. Astypalaia is a small island in the Aegean Sea, it belongs to the Dodecanese and, according to mythology, took its name from the daughter of King Phoenix and sister of Europa, Astypale, who was abducted by her lover Poseidon, the God of the Seas. But intricate mythological details aside this is also the place that intrigued the VW Group so much, that in 2020 expressed an interest in helping to make the island more eco friendly and in the process one of the first green islands not just in the Mediterranean, but in the whole world.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and VW CEO Herbert Diess were present during the delivery of the new cars to the island
As such, the first step towards Astypalaia’s electrification was the delivery of a handful of VW ID.4s for the local police, port police and airport authorities, as well as some of Seat’s new electric scooters, that will hopefully bring an end to the violent sounds of internal combustion engined equivalents, a sound everyone who has been on holiday to a Greek island knows very well. Also electric chargers were fitted on the island, some of the 230 that are planned to be specific, since it is planned for the existing fleet of vehicles to steadily get replaced by electric ones. The next step will be the replacement of the island’s ancient diesel generators that aside from electricity also produce enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, by modern solar powered equivalents, something that can happen as soon as 2023, so that by 2026 more than 80% of the island’s power will come from the sun.
Now one might reasonably ask why should we be excited that some car chargers and some cars got delivered to an island seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It’s not just about the cars. It’s about the way of thinking. Greece is one of the least electric vehicle friendly countries, partly down to years upon years of economic austerity and partly upon the various governments simply not caring. Astypalaia is not just a publicity stunt for VW, it’s also another step in the right direction for Greece. Last year we saw grants and discounts for the purchase of elelctric vehicles as well as an increase in the number of electric car chargers throughout the country, and now with VW trusting Greece with their goal of a greener future it means that Astypalaia is not a one time event. It paves the way for a greener future and hopefully can show the rest of the world that change doesn’t need to be big, but it sure needs to be important.