Mustafa Muhammedi, 37, who came to Konya from Afghanistan two years ago, collected scrap materials from the wood workshop where he works and built an electric bike at home. Muhammedi, who designed and even built some parts of his electric bicycle himself, took 50 days to build the bike which cost him only TL 4,000 ($409.10).
"I have always been curious since childhood. While I was living in Afghanistan, I built a solar powered vehicle. No one has done anything like this before. Here, too. I thought I could do it. I collected the materials and made it at home. While I was buying the materials, my wife exchanged her gold jewelry and gave me a loan," said Muhammedi.
Married with two children, Mustafa Muhammedi started to work as a laser cutter tradesperson in a wood workshop. With the sadness of leaving behind his 2-seater solar-powered vehicle that he had designed and built in Afghanistan in 90 days when he came to Konya, he started to draw again.
Muhammedi, who designed and built the electric bicycle for himself to commute from home to work, collected scrap materials and completed the electric bicycle at home within 50 days.
Muhammedi explained: "I collected old materials from scrap dealers and combined them with a few new ones. The people around me say it's nice when they see my motorcycle. Drawing and designing has been my hobby since I was a kid. My wife helped me while I was doing this. She even gave me a loan from her gold jewelry.
Muhammedi won't stop there and said his next project will be a solar powered hybrid boat. "But of course, materials and a workshop are needed. I had to leave the vehicle I built in Afghanistan there. This made me very sad. I worked 90 days to build it. It was very nice, but unfortunately coming here; we had to. If state regulations require it, I will register this vehicle for use in traffic," he said.
