First Phase of UK Electric Car Trial Complete

Electric Car News | admin | June 17, 2010 at 4:29 am

The first three-month period of an electric car trial in the UK is complete and it turns out the fleet of 25 Mitsubishi iMiEVs has been running an average of 23 miles a day and have been parked 97 percent of the time.

Electric vehicle drivers used their electric cars like the typical UK driver – the majority of journeys were less than five miles (at similar distances, when warming up conventional car engines are at their most polluting, and catalytic converters are at their least effective).

The electric cars were driven in all temperatures as low as -10 degrees Celsius, throughout the winter period. There was a drop-off in usage at very low temperatures, likely to be the result of reduced car usage during extremely cold weather, when only essential journeys are made

During the three months from January to March 2010, the cars were used by drivers throughout their speed range, including both city and motorway driving.

The project, dubbed CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrators), is running in the English midlands with a variety of vehicles and more to come. The total fleet size will be 110 vehicles.