CAR enthusiasts have donated an electric vehicle to the city’s hospital so youngsters can drive themselves to surgery.

The Tesla Owners Group UK gave a mini electric car to the Riverbank children’s ward at Worcestershire Royal Hospital this week.

The club raised enough money to buy 117 toy Teslas for hospices and hospitals across the country, including the city’s hospital and the children’s clinic in Redditch.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We’re very grateful for this kind donation by the Tesla Owners Group UK. It gives children who are due to have surgery a relaxing and fun way for them to travel to their operating theatre.

“We expect them to be used by children most days. It’s all about helping kids relax and to not feel scared when going up to their surgery, anything like this can make a big difference."

The two toy Tesla Model S electric cars, worth more than £600 each, were delivered to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust on Monday.

They were handed over to staff by car club member Dr Mandeep Uppal, who is also a palliative care consultant for the trust.

William Fealey, president of the Tesla Owners Group UK, said: “The idea for this project started when owners started to donate their Tesla toy cars to hospitals and hospices across the country.

“These were cars that were gifted from Tesla to owners after they referred a friend to buy a Tesla car.”

Mr Fealey added that he then started working with a children’s charity, The Christian Blandford Fund, to widen the campaign.

He said: “I had personally pledged to fund 13 cars, but in typical fashion I refused to pay full price so after a Twitter exchange with Elon Musk his foundation sorted us out with a deal and he personally funded some of the cars as well.

“The majority of funds came directly from Tesla Owners in the UK, Elon helped get us a discounted rate and personally donated money towards the scheme, alongside RadioFlyer [which manufactures the toy car].

“Tesla loved the scheme so much that they changed their referral scheme policy worldwide so anyone who didn’t have the need for a toy car can automatically donate it to charity via the Tesla app."