Thirty new electric vehicle charging points have gone live in five of Southampton City Council's multi-storey car parks (MSCP).

These are available to any car park customer and will be free for an introductory period. This means that drivers of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles can now charge their cars while visiting the city.

Southampton City Council's Clean Air Strategy made a commitment to encourage the uptake of low emission technologies and vehicles and this is the latest example of the efforts being made.

The chargers are capable of fully charging a small electric car, such as a Nissan Leaf or Volkswagen e-Golf, in an hour.

The council is planning to introduce further charging facilities and to meet demands of users by ensuring that fast and rapid chargers are introduced where there might be demand. These 30 charge points are the first phase of a city-wide network which will be delivered over the coming months.

The council is also working with neighbouring local authorities to provide current and future electric vehicle users with the assurance that a common, charging infrastructure is adopted across the region.

Cabinet member for sustainable living, Councillor Christopher Hammond, said: 'The city council is fully committed to reducing air pollution from exhaust emissions from vehicles in the city.

'Facilitating the uptake of electric vehicles is part of our Clean Air Strategy and these 30 chargers are the first of a city-wide network which we'll deliver.

'As well as these 30 chargers, other incentives include a 90 per cent reduction in annual city centre season ticket parking fees and offering taxi drivers cashback on licensing fees if they replace older more polluting vehicles with low emission alternatives. So far this has seen 16 diesel taxis removed from our streets to be replaced by much less polluting hybrid cars.

'Later this summer, we're also looking to introduce free passage for electric vehicles on the Itchen Bridge'

  • The new electric vehicle chargers can be found in the following car parks:
  • Marlands car park ' on level 3
  • West Park car park ' on ground floor
  • Grosvenor Square car park: - on ground floor
  • Bedford Place car park - on level 2
  • Eastgate car park - on ground floor

To use the electric vehicle chargers in the multi-storey car parks, users will need to register in advance on https://my.newmotion.com/signup/ where they can order a charge card that they will need in order to use the chargers.

Drivers will need a standard Type 2 Socket, which can be purchased from any electric vehicle charging retailer.