Solar canopies, charging points and electrical infrastructure will be built at the site in Princes Street between Dens Street and Lower Princes Street which is currently a vacant yard.

The development is part of a £1.86 million award made to the city by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) last year.

Mark Flynn, depute convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee, said: “Our use and encouragement of electric vehicles in Dundee has been something of a quiet revolution and in leading the charge we have been meeting many social and economic priorities.

“Zero and low emission vehicles reduce cost, congestion and carbon emissions as well as improving air quality and the charging hub will help us to continue our journey.

“The council’s extensive use of such vehicles is encouraging other public bodies and private individuals to buy and use them as a real practical alternative to fossil fuelled cars.”

The chargers will be available to the public, local taxi and private hire fleets, NHS vehicles and local businesses.

Charging points at eight locations including St Anne Lane Car Park and Queen Street Car Park were also funded by the OLEV grant.

Dundee City Council now has the largest fleet of electric vehicles of any local authority in the UK (83 to date) and is a past winner of Green Fleet magazine’s public sector fleet of the year and low carbon vehicle operator of the year.

The city has one of the most extensive charging infrastructures in the UK with one of the Rapid Chargers in Queen Street Broughty Ferry being the most used in Scotland, averaging 18 charges per day. The charger at Dundee Ice Arena is the second most used in Scotland.

City council mechanics have been attending dedicated electric vehicle (EV) training courses towards gaining recognised qualifications in the repair and maintenance of EVs to allow the continued expansion of the council’s electric fleet and earlier this year TESLA chose Doubletree Hilton in Dundee to install a strategic charging hub with space for eight of its vehicles.

The council owns 58 charging point at eight publicly available charging locations, including Scotland’s first rapid charger.

In 2016/17 the council estimates using EVs reduced carbon dioxide by 122 tonnes.

Work on the new charging hub is expected to start in autumn and it is planned to be up and running by the end of the year.