Young Prince Tāufaʻāhau Manumataongo was all smiles as he took the wheel of a solar powered vehicle in Nukuʻalofa last week.
But while the little Prince looked as if he wanted to drive off, the keys for the vehicle were kept away from him.
The solar powered tuk tuk’s owner, Dr Luka Mueller, appeared excited to see the Prince sitting on the steering wheel.
Prince Taufaʻāhau, who turned three in May this year, will become king of Tonga one day.
The Prince was with his mother, Crown Princess Sinaitakala, who was the guest of honour at a ceremony launching a dozen locally assembled tuk tuks last week.
As Kaniva News reported recently, the Solar Island Technology and Kirchner Solar Group have begun a project to reduce the kingdom’s reliance on imported fuel.
The German Government agreed to fund half of the project.
Prince Taufaʻāhau and his mother were seen traveling in one of the tuk tuks as part of a cruise through Nukuʻalofa last Saturday to launch the solar powered tricycle before they are released to the public.
The solar powered vehicles are being sold for TP$15,000 each.
Tuk tuks are widely known under different names throughout Asia, including Bangladesh, China and Indonesia.
The 400kg three-wheeled vehicle has a battery and can travel as fast as 40km an hour for as long as four hour when the battery was full.
The vehicles can be bought in three types. One has an insulated box for carrying frozen food, one for carrying passengers and one for carrying goods.
The main points
- Young Prince Taufaʻahau Manumataongo was all smiles as he took the wheel of a solar powered vehicle in Nukuʻalofa last week.
- The Prince was with his mother, Crown Princess Sinaitakala, who was the guest of honour at a ceremony launching a dozen locally assembled tuk tuks last week.
- The solar powered vehicles are being sold for TP$15,000.
- There are three versions: One for carrying frozen food, one for carrying passengers and one for carrying goods.
