RAPID charge points have been introduced in Worcestershire to make it easier to use an electric car.

Twelve rapid chargers have been introduced along the M5 corridor and elsewhere across Worcestershire.

Worcestershire County Council and Chargemaster hope this will make life better for electric car drivers.

Ten of these rapid chargers are now included within Chargemaster’s POLAR Plus network.

This means that POLAR Plus members can use these as often as they like as part of their monthly subscription, and only pay for the electricity they use at 9p per kWh (ex VAT).

The argument is that this makes the scheme ideal for regular users or businesses, who are more likely to be clocking up high local mileage and need to plug in for a quick charge to continue with their work.

These are the latest tri standard 50kW CHAdeMO / 50kW CCS / 43kW AC units allowing the latest electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and BMW i3 to charge to 80 per cent capacity in around 20 minutes POLAR Plus is a membership scheme run by Chargemaster, which offers members unlimited access to the UK’s largest network of over 4,000 EV charge points, for a monthly subscription of only £7.85.

For those who only wish to use these rapid charge point occasionally, the existing 'pay as you go' charges are still available.

The existing charges are delivered through the Charge Your Car system, and cost £5.50 for 45 minutes, followed by 15p per minute thereafter.

Cllr Anthony Blagg, County Council cabinet member for the environment, said: "By offering more options on how to charge up at our charge points, we hope this will be another way of encouraging more people to think about switching to an EV in Worcestershire."

David Martell, Chargemaster chief executive, said: "This will encourage more people in Worcestershire to consider driving an electric vehicle."