The first trial of electric vehicles in North East England has been a chief success, leaving hundreds of drivers ready to build the switch to low carbon transport.Cenex, the UK's Centre of Excellence for little carbon and fuel cell technologies, in conjunction with Regional Development Agency One North East, deployed four electric two-seater Smart ForTwo cars over six months in the region from September 2009. These were placed into ten diverse vehicle fleets, featured at three public events and in total were driven by 264 different people.
Key findings from this test include:
- Post-test drive, 72% of people said they would exploit an electric vehicle as their regular car
- The car surpassed the public’s expectations on all monitored performance aspects
- Drivers found charging the vehicle was simple, safe and reliable
- Drivers were over-cautious about the car’s battery life when scheduling journeys
- Vehicle fleets could give a successful early market for electric vehicles.
Following the three public test drive events in Gateshead, 72% of the people who took part said they would use an electric vehicle as their usual car, compared with just 47% before the test drive, and 82% said they would think owning an electric vehicle.
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