Last month the South Bay Cities Council of Governments released a preliminary report about their NEV demonstration project.  The report was published after only 12 months of data because of “extraordinary positive results.”

The demonstration project focused on assessing the viability of NEVs on typical suburban streets in today’s development pattern.  A total of 15 households were involved  and 7 vehicles including a Vantage Crewcab,  a Columbia Summit, two Wheego Whips, a GEM e4, a GEM e2 and a Miles sedan.  The project addressed three questions:

1. Will residents regularly drive NEV/LUVs on typical suburban streets without special lanes or signage?

2. Will NEV/LUV usage produce significant environmental and economic benefits?

3. Is large-scale deployment of NEV/LUVs feasible?

The answers to the first two were a resounding ‘Yes’ and a conditional ‘Yes’ for the deployment question.  Data from the project showed that “…the average percentage of all household travel (VMT) taken in an NEV/LUV was consistently 22% across all groups. In terms of vehicle trips, the NEV/LUVs mode share averaged 26% of the round trips.”

In terms of environmental impacts “…Average participating households criteria air pollutants were reduced by 26% – 33% depending on the specific pollutant being measured.”

To facilitate deployment a number of barriers need to be lessened including vehicle price, vehicle quality, consumer education and local government incentives.  The authors also suggested a medium speed vehicle class would help the transition away from gas autos.  The project will run a total of 18 months until October 31, 2011.  Learn more:  Southbaycities.org