In participation with the Switch EV project, a major electric vehicle test drive in North East England, Nissan delivered 14 LEAFs to members of the public on 24th March 2011 , as part of a 6-month trial of life with a 100% all-electric car.
The Switch EV project began in September last year and is one of eight UK projects supported by the Technology Strategy Board's £25m Ultra Low Carbon Vehicles Demonstrator Programme, aimed at accelerating the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the UK.
The drivers will use the five-seater LEAF EV as their own car for six months to experience and report on life with an electric car. The Nissan LEAFs were handed over to the participants in a ceremony at the Nissan Sunderland Plant in the presence of UK Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk MP. Bespoke data collection units have been installed in each vehicle to provide data, including the effects of road topology and congestion on the range of the battery, which is expected to aid the development of electric vehicles.
The 14 participants, including five individuals, three businesses, three local authorities and three Nissan employees, are among the first people in Europe to drive the award-winning car.
A fifteenth Nissan LEAF will be added to the Switch EV project in the coming weeks, and after six months the current Switch EV LEAFs will pass to a new group of people to experience life with an EV, with an expected 150 people to test a total of 49 new, all-electric vehicles from different manufacturers during the project.
