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It's a question that has been asked for years but has yet to be answered: How can motorists be persuaded to move from traditional fossil-fuel powered cars to electric vehicles?

Hammarby Sjöstad -- a Stockholm municipality famous for its green achievements and sustainable environment -- is striving to be a global leader in the transition to electric cars.

The recently launched organisation, ElBil2020, aims to make Hammarby Sjöstad the world leader in the usage of e-cars by year 2020.

Hans Larsson, chairman of the organisation and CEO of broadband and cable TV provider ComHem, said that the Stockholm district is the ideal place to kick off the project.

"We want to use Hammarby Sjöstad's position as an international model for environmentally conscious urban design to transform the area into a global pioneer and role model for the transition to charge-cars, plug-in hybrids and full-scale electric cars," he said.

The project's leaders are hoping the change to electric cars will reflect Hammarby Sjöstad's transformation from run-down, polluted industrial area to eco-friendly pioneer.

Part of the plan is to let people in Stockholm borrow and test-drive electric and hydro cars – for free.

Henric Gustafson, one of the participants of the test-driving panel, said he was amazed about how quiet and smooth the Volvo C 30 Electric is.

"I've been driving for nearly 50 years; everything from the old [Volkswagen] bubble to the latest Jaguar. But never with such a soft and comfortable feeling [as with this car]," he said in an article on the organisation's website.

ElBil2020 is already in talks with car companies, carpooling groups, energy and battery firms, as well as with Stockholm Parking and the City of Stockholm's environmental department.

The project acts within the framework of the Swedish parliament's target for a fossil-fuel free transport sector in 2030, which was hammered out in 2009. The national vision is for emissions of greenhouse gases to cease completely by the middle of this century, and for fossil-based energy sources for heating purposes to be phased out

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This article was published in collaboration with Stockholm Business Region.

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