A trail of electric cars in North East England has found that after testing the vehicles, most people were convinced of that they could use them as their regular car.
The ’Smart Move’ trial held by Cenex 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. Placed into ten different fleets and featured at three public events in total 264 people got the chance to test the vehicles.
After testing, a staggering 72 per cent said they would use an electric vehicle as their regular car. This compared to just 47 per cent before the test drive.
The public test drive events took place in Gateshead, and lead to 82 per cent of participants saying they would consider owning an electric vehicle. During test drives the car exceeded the general public’s expectations on all monitored performance aspects, with the largest change in attitude concerning the top speed performance. Test drivers and fleet users in the 20-30 age group experienced the highest opinion shift in favour of electric vehicle ownership, the agencies found.
The trials showed that vehicle fleets could provide a successful early market for electric vehicles, having left 58 per cent of fleet users feeling more positive about electric vehicles and 88 per cent of fleet managers feeling more positive about incorporating electric vehicles into their fleets. Because of the return–to‐base operation of their vehicles, fleet managers also said that the number of public charging points was not a barrier to integrating electric vehicles into their organisations.
One of the most significant findings of the trial was that so-called ‘range anxiety’ meant drivers were over-cautious when planning journeys. The maximum journey length was 17.8km, just 25 per cent of the average range of the vehicles, which was 72.4km. This range anxiety also meant that 93 per cent of journeys were begun with the battery charged above 50 per cent, and people also begin to modify their driving style when the battery’s state of charge approached 50 per cent. Manufacturers are already fitting more sophisticated range-prediction aids to electric vehicles to address this issue.
The electric Smart cars emitted an average of 81.4g CO2/km when recharged with UK average grid mix electricity. This represents almost half the average emissions from new cars in the UK, which last year was 149.5g CO2/km. If charged with alternative sources of electricity, the electric vehicles could achieve average emissions of 45g CO2/km from Combined Heat and Power (CHP) sources, and 0g CO2/km from renewable electricity, Cenex, the Government’s centre for low carbon technologies reports.
Other findings showed that the low noise level and the environmental ‘feel good factor’ of the EV were judged more positively than other performance criteria, and that fleet users found that charging the vehicle was easy, safe and reliable. The positive attitude towards charging shows that the drivers accepted the electric vehicle charging requirements, and did not draw comparison to refilling a conventional vehicle with fuel.
In total 11 organisations used the vehicles in their fleets including Durham County Council, Gateshead Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Newcastle University, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council among others. The Smart cars were fitted with remote data monitoring equipment supplied by ComeSys Europe Ltd, which continuously monitored their performance and transmitted data via a wireless link to Newcastle University’s Transport Operations and Research Group for analysis. Future Transport Systems (FTS) provided trial management support and regional contacts.
Robert Evans, CEO at Cenex, said: “The Smart Move trial has done a great deal to change perceptions of electric vehicles among the fleet managers and drivers who took part. There is clearly a need for better understanding of the advances that electric vehicle technologies have made in recent years, and we will be working with partners across the country to spread this message.”
