More than 25,000 people now belong to pay-per-drive car clubs in Scotland with memberships more than doubling in the last three years.

The research found that 48% of vehicles in Scottish car clubs are electric or hybrid and 98% of the cars are compliant with low emission zones

The report has been published by CoMoUK, a charity that promotes the environmental, economic, health and social benefits of shared transport for the public good.

Its 2019 survey showed that car club membership has grown from 7,715 members in 2015, to 10,662 in 2017, and hit the total of 25,193 last year.

The research – based on data from Scotland’s two main operators, Co-wheels Car Club and Enterprise Car Club, plus three community car clubs – also found members were walking 16% more, cycling 10% more and using their own private cars 26% less.

Car club cars have undertaken a total of 4.2 million miles during 2019/20, and by making these journeys in a car club vehicle rather than a private car, 354 tonnes of CO2 has been saved.

Lorna Finlayson, CoMoUK’s Scotland director, said: “Scottish car clubs are playing a vital role in tackling some of the major transport problems the country is facing, primarily carbon emissions, congestion and poor air quality.

“There is an urgent need to enact the Scottish Government’s own priorities, as set out in the National Transport Strategy, which identified single occupancy, private car journeys as one of the biggest contributors to transport emissions.

“With increasing public concern about the climate crisis there is a growing recognition that we need to take radical action now to cut transport emissions and shift more journeys to more sustainable modes – and car clubs are a huge part of this.”