Bright spark pupils have designs on helping Highland electric car push
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THE WINNERS of a Highland-wide design project have been revealed after hundreds of children in the region have submitted their works.
The I Design Future initiative aimed to involve primary and secondary school pupils to help design branding for an Electric Vehicle (EV) and charging infrastructure throughout the region.
P1s to S7s from over 30 schools have been working to come up with inspirational imagery to raise awareness of electric vehicles throughout the region and to help Highland move towards a low carbon transport future.
The primary school competition which asked to design a vehicle wrap for Zippy Zoe (Renault Zoe), one of the Council’s EVs saw two winners sharing the accolade and seeing their project transferred on the EV car: Ben Macgillvray from North Kessock Primary and Aysha Reid from Crown Primary.
Both images are already proudly displayed on Zippy Zoe and can be seen on the streets of Inverness and around rural Highlands.
The winner for the competition for secondary school pupils, who were tasked with designing branding for Highland Council’s EV charging infrastructure, was S3 pupil Samantha Flavell, who created a "technically impressive design that captured the essence of Highlands".
Her work will feature on EV charging points and signage.
Miss Flavell said: "I learned about the project from my teacher and I got very excited by this opportunity to create an image which would be used on charging points throughout Highlands. I feel honoured my work is now a part of Highland EV history."
The Chair of the Council’s Climate Change Working Group, Cllr Trish Robertson said: "Involving pupils, educating and enthusing them to take part in this EV initiative is potentially an important step in the fight against climate change in Highland.
"We were overwhelmed with talent among young people: some showed real skill with drawing, some have imagination that inspires; some young minds used the power of words and created beautiful motivational quotes. The future is in safe hands with youth like this."
The Highland Council’s Climate Change Coordinator (EV), Anna Myeshkova, added: "We are so impressed with talent and world awareness of our young minds. We are also very proud of what children created for Zoe.
"With new charging points being installed in Inverness and rural Highlands there is no stopping Zoe’s adventures - watch out for her all over Highlands inspiring all to go electric!"
The project comes as part of the Council’s initiatives towards achieving national commitments for low emission transport, delivering social, economic and environmental benefits to communities across the region.
Thirty-one Electric Vehicle charging points have been installed across the region by the Council with support from Transport Scotland, with many more to be installed in the coming year.
Schemes offered by Energy Saving Trust are available to enable more drivers to move towards sustainable options.
For more information and current EV initiatives you can visit https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland or call a local Home Energy Scotland advice centre free on 0808 808 2282.
