The Australian state of Victoria has launched its own electric vehicle trial which will involve more than 50 organisations, 180 households and $5million in investments.
Around 60 vehicles will be provided by the likes of Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Blade Electric Vehicles and EDay Life while public charging infrastructure comes from Better Place, ChargePoint and ECOtality, with additional household charging from these companies and DiUS Computing. All of the vehicles will also run on AGL GreenPower, which is 100 per cent renewable energy.
According to the state’s Premier John Brumby, the Government is committed to making Victoria an electric vehicle friendly place and the trial intends to create real-life conditions by testing how drivers, infrastructure and the network will work in everyday situations.
Most of the vehicles involved in the trial will be small passenger cars that will be placed into households as well as commercial and government fleets with some electric light commercial vehicles to be used in freight fleets. Electric two-wheelers will also be examined as well as some electric vehicle conversions.
As for the households involved, they will be selected via an application process on the RACV website every year until 2012.
It is hoped that the trial will reveal the overall economic impact of the electric vehicle market in Victoria while predicting what the state’s future may look like.
