THE North-East is among a consortium of European cities and regions, vehicle manufacturers and electricity providers who have teamed up to ask the European Commission for funding to accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles in Europe.

The 19 European cities and regions, 17 European vehicle manufacturers, including Nissan, and 12 European electricity providers making up the Electric Vehicles for Advanced cities (EVA) are proposing the largest ever European electric vehicle trial project.

If funding is approved, about 9,500 electric vehicles would be rolled out on European roads. It would enable researchers to assess, for the first time on such a scale and in real-life conditions, the impact of electric vehicles on users’ behaviours and road networks, with more than 14,000 charging points installed in EVA cities.

Chris Pywell, One North East’s head of strategic economic change, said: “This would integrate North-East England into the largest European electric vehicle research programme to date, and we are pleased to be sharing expertise with other leading European centres.

“The proposals from the EVA Consortium would greatly increase the number of electric vehicles on Europe’s roads and accelerate the development of key technologies.”

Electric vehicle production is expected to bring largescale economic benefits to the North-East.

Last year, the region was selected to take part in the world’s largest trial testing of the day-to-day viability of electric vehicles with more than £10m of financial backing from a consortium including Nissan and Smith Electric Vehicles, part of the North-East-based Tanfield Group, as well as the Government’s Technology Strategy Board.

Hundreds of recharging points are being installed around the North-East and Sunderland has been named as the site for Nissan’s European centre for electric car battery production.

The Government has also designated the North-East as the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area, specialising in ultra-low carbon vehicles.