At the end of May, the E.VE.CR.I team managed to cover two more Bulgarian towns near the border – Gotse Delchev and Dospat.
In Gotse Delchev, we had an unexpected surprise. Students and teachers from the Highschool for Mechanisation of the Agriculture “Petko Kr. Yavorov”, where an “Electric Vehicles” course was established in the recent years, turned up to attend our event. They also brought the electric vehicle they are using for teaching purposes. The students, who were in their early teens, and their teachers alike listened with great interest to our presentation – a summary of the electric mobility situation in Bulgaria, compared also with the rest of Europe, as well as the tasks and objectives of our project.
There are currently 3 charging stations in Gotse Delchev. However, the one that belongs to the municipality of Gotse Delchev and is located at the town hall is currently not functioning. Our team pledged to liaison in its repair, on top of installing a new one within the premises of a local SME.
Dimitar Baltadzhiev, the chairman of Gotse Delchev’s town council, also honoured our event with his presence.
In Dospat, our event was attended by around 15 of the town’s administrative staff. The town currently has not got a single charging station so the topic was visibly novel for our attendees. Since Dospat is a popular holiday destination, we explained to them that any restaurant or a hotel owner who decides to be a pioneer in the field of electric mobility would likely reap substantial economic benefits. EV drivers and enthusiast, which generally have higher incomes, would have no choice but rest at whichever place has available charging stations.
Our guests have also enjoyed in-person presentation from our the Greek partners. Athanasios Tsioutras, who is civil, transportation and environmental engineer at the Helenic Institute of Transport (HIT/CERTH), the second project partner, came to present in both events in Gotse Delchev and Dospat. He briefly covered the electric mobility situation in Greece and also show some of the work they have done and the equipment available at HIT. This was of particular interest to the teachers at the Gotse Delchev high school, since they shared that they have driving simulators available for teaching purposes and driving simulators is one of the major fields in driver’s behaviour issues research at HIT/CERTH.
Link to the presentation slides
Link to a post about the event on the Gotse Delchev high-school FB page