ESB's Great Electric Drive is in its second year now, and the search was on for this year's 'ecar ambassadors' - people who could represent various age, lifestyle, occupation and commuting patterns. There was massive interest in the Drive, with more than 20,000 people registering to be one of the 24 ecar ambassadors. Close to a thousand commercial applications were received too.
Most of the applicants that came forward to register want to use electric cars for commuting to work and to save money spent on fuel bills. Half of the people interested claimed that their daily commute consists of less than 50 kilometres.
The participation is nearly double of the first Great Electric Drive that took place last year. This year, the majority of applications came from Leinster (about 30 per cent) while the highest number of commercial applications came from Dublin (28 per cent).
Anything else?
The selected ecar ambassadors will be announced in April this year, and their vehicle trial will begin then. They will get to try electric cars from manufacturers like BMW, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault.