As a test to how the U.K. will deal with new low carbon emission vehicles the government has given twenty-five Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicles to independent drivers. The green vehicles have been rolled out to drivers by the Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrators consortium and Birmingham’s Aston University will monitor the results to see how best the U.K.’s infrastructure can be adapted to support widespread use in the future.

The experiment is the first of a number planned by the government and the teams looking at how the new low emission vehicles are used will look into aspects such as where to place the battery charging stations needed to supply the vehicles with energy. The Technology Strategy Board is the government appointed body behind the scheme and the Birmingham based experiment is the first of eight regional trials set to be put into place.

The scheme is backed up with £25 million worth of funding and will involve a total of 340 electric vehicles made by a number of different companies being tested all over the U.K.

One of the testers is former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson. He said that the new electric cars being put on trial will be the forerunners of vehicles that will dramatically change the way people drive not only in the U.K. but around the world. The Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicles are the first to go on trial and electric cars from manufacturers such as Mercedes Benz/Smart, Jaguar/Land Rover and Tata will follow.