Residents across Oxfordshire could soon be offered unlimited use of full-sized electric cars, conveniently parked around their neighbourhoods.

Three areas of the county could be among the first communities in the country to have their own E-car clubs. North Oxford, Abingdon and Kirtlington are all on a national shortlist of eight to pilot community schemes.

Meetings are now being held with residents to assess the level of local interest in clubs, offering use of plug-in electric vehicles.

Organisers say it would give green-minded residents the chance to use electric pay-per-use low emission cars, without the high cost of owning one.

The pilot scheme is being run by E-Car: the Electric Vehicle Car Club, a private limited company.

The company says it would provide the cars, the charging infrastructure, maintenance and taxes, as well as ensuring vehicles are charged and ready to run for 70 miles.

Club members would then have use of E-cars parked “in convenient locations throughout their own neighbourhood”.

The cars could be booked online, by phone or a smartphone application. After being driven members would then return vehicles to a dedicated parking bay. Membership would be about £4.50 a month, with hourly usage rates starting at £5.95 per hour.

The company says it expects to choose between three and five locations from the shortlist. Decisions will rest on the level of local interest and the suitability of areas.

North Oxford residents will have the chance to say if they want to be in the running at a public meeting at the Woodstock Road Baptist Hall, starting at 7.30pm tonight.

The meeting will be hosted by Low Carbon Oxford, the charity created to help residents reduce carbon emissions. The group had been considering the idea of a car club for more than a year.

Sam Clarke, chairman of LCON, said: “This could be both a low carbon way of getting about locally and a cost effective way of getting access to an efficient vehicle for local journeys. We have carried out a survey online and will discover the results at the meeting.

“What I hope is that there are enough people interested to get a club piloted in the area.”

Meetings are still being planned in Abingdon and Kirtlington.