Read at 3 different speeds

Children driving on Swedish roads - 21st April 2023

Evelina's only 15 but she drives a BMW to school. The car looks modern, but it can only go up to 30 kilometres per hour.

In Sweden, there's an old law. It says you don't need a driving licence at 15 or more. You can drive these special cars.

Evelina Christiansen: "Yeah, so, here in the back, I have a bass. So, when we have all these meetings with my friends I usually play this when I open this. So, it's high music. I think it's like driving a normal car because this is very much like, you see, the other cars and I think it's just, you learn quickly."

People call these cars 'A-traktors'. In the past, they were popular on farms. People didn't have much money. So, they built the cars themselves.

These days, teenagers like the idea of driving. So, people are building their own cars.

Ronja Löfgren owns one.

Ronja Löfgren: "We've rebuilt the front bumper. Here it is, "Made by my dad" and we've put new wheel guards on, however we took the rear axle from my dad's old truck."

Oskar Flyman is a mechanic. His garage changes cars to A-traktors. There are lots of things to change.

Oskar Flyman: "This is an A-traktor. We have attached this, the warning triangle, we've attached the towing hook that you have to have. We've limited the amount of space in the back so you can't load more people or cargo and we have also put limits to the engine so that it only goes at 30 kilometres per hour."

There are now over 50,000 A-traktors on the road. The number of accidents is going up too. So, some people dislike A-traktors.

Now the European Commission wants the law to change. But Swedish teenagers are unhappy about this. A-traktors make them feel free.