Driving the Oxford-built Mini E car to check the electric car's appropriateness for everyday motoring, a Berkshire motorist, Peter McManners, from Pangbourne has declared that his trial of the new electric car was `a success'.

The motorist, interested in green issues, was one of 20 drivers in the trial, run by a conglomerate led by the car's manufacturer BMW.

Making room for lithium-ion batteries by removal of rear seats, the left-hand drive, two-seater prototype is like a conventional Mini car. He said that he found the lack of rear seats a problem, as he himself has children.

Run for approximately 100 miles, the car can be charged by a 32-amp charger at a cost of around £1.50.

Costing £330 a month to lease the car, the testing was only open to motorists in a specific geographical area between Andover, West London and Oxford.

Project leader, Suzanne Gray from BMW said that they were not just learning about electric vehicles but also about product development, developing and running the electricity grid and also, a charging infrastructure for vehicles.

Brian Price from Aston University commented "The journey data gathered is already showing that the current generations of ultra low carbon vehicles are cheap to run as well as being comparable to petrol and diesel vehicles for speed, ease of use and daily journey distance - using less than 30 per cent of total charge in typical daily use".

The general production is likely to start in 2013.