Motorists across Dorset are embracing electric cars and getting on board the green revolution, figures show.

Figures from the Department for Transport show that technology is advancing rapidly with the number of registered plug-in vehicles in the area increased by 49 per cent over the 2017-18 financial year,

The statistics show the number of registered electric or plug-in hybrid cars, vans and micro cars called quadricycles in Dorset for each quarter of the year.

From January 2017 to March 2017 there were 530 electric vehicles but by the latest quarter, from January to March this year, that figure had grown to 791, a jump of 261.

That's less than the increase of 2,401 in Peterborough, which has the highest percentage of plug-in vehicles of any local authority in the United Kingdom.

But back in 2013 in Dorset there were just 49 electric cars, which shows the progress the industry has made in a short time.

Over the past few years manufacturers have increased the range of their vehicles, and prices have lowered, helping fuel the rise in environmentally friendly vehicles.

The latest Nissan Leaf, the UK's most popular entirely electric car, can now travel 235 miles before it needs to be recharged, 80 miles more than the previous version.

Last month BP announced it would follow Shell and install charging points at its petrol stations and Dyson has also said it plans to release an electric car by 2020.

One advantage electric car users have over other vehicles is that they do not have to pay road tax, as they do not release any emissions.

Electricity is also far cheaper than petrol and diesel, and green drivers have the satisfaction of helping save the planet.

However plug-in vehicles still make up a tiny percentage of the cars on the road in Dorset.

Compared with the 791 electric cars on our roads, there are 282,736 cars and vans in total, according to the latest complete vehicle registration data from 2017.

Jesse Norman, electric vehicles minister, said: “Our mission is for all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission by 2040. That is why we are ensuring that the UK is the best place in the world to build and own an electric vehicle.

“The recently launched Road to Zero strategy sets out one of the most comprehensive support packages in the world for the transition to zero emission vehicles, including measures which will help enable hundreds of thousands of new chargepoints across the UK.”