Residents in Marlow have become the first of 11 neighbourhoods and workplaces to take delivery of their Nissan Leafs as part of the £9 million ‘My Electric Avenue’ trial.

The trial looks at how best to manage the electricity network when a large number of EVs charge in the same street at the same time.

It is being led by EA Technology and hosted by Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD) and aims to avoid the need to dig up the roads to install higher capacity electric cables.

Nine neighbours in Marlow are now receiving delivery of their all-electric Nissan Leafs to use over the next 18 months.

The other ‘residential clusters’ are in Chineham, Chiswick, Lyndhurst, South Gosforth and Wylam, with two more based in South Shields.

There are two ‘workplace-based clusters’: Slough Borough Council and Your Homes Newcastle

The project has exceeded Ofgem’s recruitment and customer engagement targets, by achieving 111 signed lease contracts overall in the technical trials when 100 were required; recruiting eight  clusters with 10 people in each when seven  clusters of 10 were required; and recruiting 11 clusters overall in the technical trials when 10 clusters in total were required.

Recruitment for the trials has been successful due to ‘cluster champions’ in local communities taking up the challenge of recruiting their neighbours through leaflet dropping, door knocking, and even holding community coffee mornings to drum up support.

Although the technical trials are now fully subscribed, My Electric Avenue’s social trials are still open for business.

The social trials are designed to complement the information gathered during the technical trials and participants can lease a new 100% electric Nissan Leaf at a specially negotiated rate for 18 months.

Applicants can be individuals or groups and there’s no requirement to have any technology installed in the home.

Spaces in the social trials are limited and so the cars will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.