The Transit Connect Electric has found favour with residents of the UK's greenest community at Unity Gardens in Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, after showing it can cost less than £50 annually to power Ford's light commercial vehicle.

Residents of the eco-friendly community lived with the Transit Connect Electric for a day, carrying out day-to-day jobs such as, taking children to school, delivering waste to be recycled and transporting their home-grown crops.

Unity Gardens was created by award-winning eco-architect Dr Jerry Harrall, who said: "The electric vehicle is an obvious natural progression for Unity Gardens. The residents are generating more energy than they are using so it makes sense for them to take advantage of the excess to power an electric vehicle."

According to Dr Harrall, figures show that an average two-bedroom home will consume around 28,000 kilowatt hours (kWhrs) of energy per annum, while a Unity Gardens house will go through just 6,000 kWhrs of energy in a year.

Since each home generates 7,500 kWhrs per annum thanks to the sustainable technology of solar panels on each property, the scheme puts more energy into the National Grid than it is taking out.

The surplus going back into the National Grid of 1,500 kWhrs is enough to charge the Transit Connect Electric more than 50 times in one year, providing enough power to drive nearly 5,000 miles at an annual cost of about £46.50.

The Unity Gardens sustainable community grow their own vegetables, manage hives of 150,000 bees, take care of more than 20 chickens and harvest rainfall for essentials such as toilet flushing as well as the watering of plants.