ESB ecars is recruiting members of the general public to become ecar ambassadors and trial electric cars for up to a year in an initiative called The Great Electric Drive. A team of twenty, enthusiastic people with all kinds of interests and lifestyles in Ireland will be selected to trial electric cars and share their experience to help support the development of electric cars.

ESB ecars is leading the Irish research which has been running since May 2010 and forms part of a pan-European project, Green eMotion, which aims to prepare the mass market for electric cars in Europe. More than 45 trial participants from organisations such as ESB, AA Ireland, County Councils, Vodafone Ireland, Sligo IT, IBM, Intel as well as private motorists drove a Mitsubishi iMiEV for a trial period of one month or more.

The research from this trial is providing ESB ecars, with important information about driving trends, charging patterns and onsumer attitudes to electric motoring. The trial is also extremely important in testing the infrastructure and gaining a better understanding the characteristics of electric cars

An advertising campaign will run from the beginning of June 2012 to promote awareness about The Great Electric Drive initiative, he increasing popularity of ecars as well as the growing network of charge points.

Members of the general public can enter by simply filling in the online form on www.esb.ie/thegreatelectricdrive or www.facebook.com/ESBecars The closing date for applications is Midnight on Monday 16th July. The chosen ambassadors will be announced in August. For questions or queries, please email ecars@esb.ie