Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators

More than 100 electric cars will be driven by real people across Birmingham and Coventry for at least a year, while researchers track every charge, journey, and breakdown. The project addresses a critical gap: no one knows how electric vehicles actually perform when handed to ordinary drivers, rather than fleet managers or early adopters. Most data comes from controlled trials or enthusiastic owners. CABLED will capture how a wide cross-section of users—families, commuters, businesses—integrate EVs into daily life, including where they charge, how far they drive, and what infrastructure fails. If the project succeeds, it will provide the hard usage data that carmakers and grid operators need to plan mass adoption. The findings could reshape where public charging points are installed, how home chargers are designed, and whether the electricity network can cope with thousands of new vehicles. The project also installs the charging infrastructure itself—in homes, workplaces, and public spaces—so the demonstration is not just theoretical. This is applied demonstration research, not fundamental science. Its value lies in replacing assumptions with real-world evidence, directly informing the rollout of low-carbon transport across the UK.