THE City of Vincent is moving to expand its public electric vehicle charging network after a 40 per cent increase in EV ownership in the past year.

About one in 32 Vincent residents owned an electric vehicle as of March, with the inner-city council area now home to about 41,000 people.

The City currently has three public charging locations at The Avenue and Chelmsford Road car parks and Beatty Park Leisure Centre.

Following a decision at this month’s council meeting, Vincent will seek an operator to install and manage EV chargers in public car parks, while also investigating the cost of running its own charging network.

“We’re seeing a large rise in Vincent locals making the switch to electric vehicles, so we are doing everything we can to ensure they can charge easily and quickly,” Mayor Alison Xamon said.

The City said many EV owners could charge at home, but apartment residents and people living in higher-density developments and heritage areas could have limited access to private charging.

“There will be even more EVs on the streets in the future as our population continues to grow in line with the State Government’s infill target of 11,500 new homes by 2050 for our area,” Ms Xamon said.

“This is why we are looking at adding more chargers to our most-used car parks.”