Tourists, businesses and residents in York can now benefit from the region’s first network of pay-as-you-go electric vehicle charging points.

In addition to the 12 charging points already located across York, a network consisting of six fast charging points has now been installed at five locations across city centre car parks (Union Terrace and Nunnery Lane) and Park & Ride sites (Monks Cross, Grimston Bar and Designer Outlet) to allow drivers to re-charge their cars on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The network is publicly accessible with a simple payment system so that users can pay by phone or text in a similar way drivers currently pay for parking in council owned car parks.

Each charging point allows two electric vehicles to top up their batteries at the same time with up to 22kW power output from a choice of type two or three pin charging sockets.

There are three easy ways to operate these – either download a mobile app from the Charge Your Car website, who run the payment system: http://chargeyourcar.org.uk/contact/ , use a swipecard or call the Charge Your Car helpline on 0191 26 50 500.

The pay-as-you-go system is 50p per hour plus a 30p transaction fee which is cheaper than running on petrol or diesel.

Four further charging points will be installed over the next few months in three additional locations – all with Rapid Chargers to follow.

NB. So far, very few electric powered vehicles have been sold in York. Sales are expected to increase as more plug in hybrid models  become available

Discover the best ways to travel in or through York via the new i-Travel York online Journey Planner at www.itravelyork.info