Nissan e-NV200 on trial with the City of London Corporation. The e-NV200 is due to be launched in 2014.

The City of London Corporation is the ‘local council’ for the square mile — London’s financial district, which has just 9,000 residents, but has 350,000 daily commuters and nine million annual visitors.

The dense, congested, urban environment in which the Corporation’s vehicles operate should be ideal for electric power, and two trials this year have confirmed this.

Earlier this year the City of London Corporation took part in a successful trial of the Nissan LEAF electric car, and it’s just completed a week-long trial of Nissan’s electric van, the e-NV200.

The Corporation found that the van could complete a typical daily usage cycle on one charge and received positive feedback from all of the drivers who tried the vehicle.

Using an all-electric vehicle means zero CO2 emissions at the point of use, and the cost of charging an electric vehicle is significantly lower than the equivalent cost of diesel.

The London trial is just one of several trials that Nissan has undertaken with the e-NV200, all of which have been successful. The van is due to be launched next year, and I expect it to be one of the first commercially successful electric vans.

Through its extensive trial programme, Nissan has provided key commercial users with a thorough understanding of how the van can be used, and assuming it is sufficiently affordable, I expect demand to be strong.