CABLED project

The Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrator (CABLED) consortium is the UK’s largest trial of electric and ultra-low emission vehicles.

The project is making ultra low carbon vehicles available to a wide range of real world users and collecting data on their everyday use.

Part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board and Advantage West Midlands, CABLED will deliver a showcase demonstration of 110 ultra low carbon vehicles across Birmingham and Coventry. These will be a cross-section of vehicles, which will be powered using battery electric, hydrogen fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid technology.

The first phase of the project has already happened, with the Mitsubishi i MiEV vehicle launched in December 2009.

The CABLED project will also deliver the infrastructure required both in the users’ property and workplace, as well as in public areas.

UPDATE ON PROJECT

Latest research, analysed by Aston University, has shown positive results into long-term low carbon vehicle usage.

The study demonstrates:

• an increase in driver confidence
• the first real-world analysis on the cost of ‘refuelling’
• fresh information on charging trends

Six months into a year-long trial, CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators) drivers are travelling more miles, more frequently and are making longer journeys – indicating increased confidence and notably reduced range anxiety.

The study also reported that that the cost for those recharging at home has been on average between just 25p and £1 per day.

The data combines and compares the behaviour patterns of 25 Mitsubishi i-MiEV drivers over two consecutive quarters. Brian Price, who teaches in Aston University’s school of Engineering Systems & Management, comments: “Collecting real-world usage of electric vehicles (EV) through our satellite mapping and analysis has been essential in understanding actual demands and requirements of EV vehicles for consumers. The journey data gathered is already showing that the current generation of ultra-low carbon vehicles are cheap to run as well as being comparable to petrol and diesel vehicles for speed, ease of use and daily journey distance; using less than 30% of total charge in typical daily use. The next phase of the study will allow us to map out an optimal charging point network to further extend range and improve the convenience of electric cars.

For more information about the study, please click here.

For more information about the CABLED project, please click here.