Highland Schools invited to design electric vehicle future

‘I Design Future’- a Highland-wide competition based around the electric vehicle initiative for primary and secondary school pupils is now open.

The Highland Council has recently opened a competition for primary and secondary school pupils to help design the branding for an electric vehicle (EV) and the charging infrastructure throughout the region.

The initiative, titled ‘I Design Future’, is an important tool to help engage young people in raising awareness of electric vehicles throughout the region, and helping Highland move towards a low carbon transport future. 

There are two separate competitions – the first, for primary school pupils, is to design a vehicle wrap for Zippy Zoe, one of the Council’s EVs, which will be seen throughout Highland promoting the shift to low carbon travel.

The second part of the competition is for secondary school pupils, who have been tasked with designing branding for Highland’s EV charging infrastructure.

Through various projects and initiatives, The Highland Council and partner organisations are making good progress towards achieving national commitments for low emission transport, delivering social, economic and environmental benefits to communities across the region. The Council’s ambition is to champion renewable energy generation and transition to a low carbon transport system. Across Highland, 31 Electric Vehicle charging points have been installed by the Council through support from Transport Scotland, with many more to be installed in the coming year.

Anna Myeshkova, Electric Vehicle Officer (Climate Change Team) said: “Increased use of EVs is an important response to the current climate and ecological emergency. 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.”

Nicky Grant, Interim Head of Education added: "As Highland Council take forward this important work over the next decade, it would be great to see the infrastructure carrying some of the character and creativity of our young people, and I’d take this opportunity to encourage as many schools as possible to take part in these competitions.”

Closing date of the competition is 2 December 2019. Fantastic prizes for winning designs will be provided by The Highland Council and AES Solar Ltd.

For further details and entry submissions please contact: EVManagement@highland.gov.uk