23 February 2010 09:50
The (electric) car's the star: E.ON's innovation head enjoying life with his low-carbon vehicle

"It's the same as charging your mobile phone - only the cable's a bit bigger!"

Two months into a year-long electric vehicle trial, E.ON's Head of Innovation has taken to the internet for a Top Gear-style video on his new greener car.

Charles Bradshaw-Smith is one of 110 people taking part in the year-long CABLED initiative bringing a trial of electric cars to the streets of Coventry and Birmingham.

Now he's made his own YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZrqGI_b6u0 - to show what life's like with his Mitsubishi iMiEV, finding that the electric car brings not just environmental benefits but cost savings too.

Charles said: "I've been living with this car for two months now and, quite simply, I love it. I must admit I was a little nervous when I agreed to take part in the trial but now I'm a true convert.

"The performance was far better than I'd hoped; it handles well, accelerates quickly off the mark and saves me the hassle of visiting the petrol station on a regular basis.

"Add in the fact that a full overnight charge at off-peak rates costs me about a quid and things just get better - and that's before we consider the fact that this vehicle is responsible for less than half the emissions of a petrol car.

"We're making our homes more energy efficient and if we are to tackle climate change we really need to look at transport, after all the cars we drive are responsible for about 30% of our carbon emissions."

Charles's video has been posted on E.ON's own YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/talkingenergy which was launched to spark debate about key energy issues faced by the UK.

Topics covered so far include E.ON's ‘trilemma' - the need to balance reliability, affordability and low carbon energy - and renewable power.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas - and is part of the E.ON group, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies. We employ more than 16,000 people in the UK and over 92,000 worldwide;
• We're one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 20 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and have completed one of the UK's largest dedicated biomass power stations at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester.
• The CABLED consortium is made up of E.ON, Jaguar/Land Rover, Mitsubishi/Colt, Mercedes Benz/Smart, Tata Motors, LTI, Microcab Industries, Coventry University, Aston University, University of Birmingham and Arup.

For further information contact:

Andrew Barrow on 024 7618 3677