Employees of the Department who have volunteered to help with the trial will feed information back to SEAT’s Technical Centre, including performance, battery usage and charging habits.

The department is the fifth body to test SEAT’s prototype electric vehicle fleet – made up of plug-in hybrid Leons and battery-electric Alteas – following similar partnerships with the Port of Barcelona, Barcelona City Hall, the Catalan Energy Institute and utility company Endesa. SEAT expects the research to inform a production model due to launch in 2015.

Minister for the Environment and Land Planning at the Community of Madrid, Borja Sarasola, said at the handover: ‘We believe the Department of the Environment and Land Planning has the obligation to collaborate in the reduction of emissions into the atmosphere, the more so in the so-called 'diffuse sectors', of which transport is one, and which are not regulated like general industry.’