The use of electric car charging points across Scotland has more than doubled in the last year.

Chargers were used 26,119 times during August this year, up from 12,939 in the same month in 2015 and nine times the usage in August 2014, which was 2885.

Figures released in the summer showed there were 3575 electric cars and vans licensed in Scotland, compared to 2050 in the previous year.

There are 870 public and commercial charging points in the ChargePlace Scotland network.

These have a total of 1772 connectors or sockets between them, up from 694 charge points and 1373 sockets a year earlier.

According to ChargePlace Scotland, the majority of public charge points will fully charge most electric vehicles in between four and eight hours.

Rapid chargers can charge cars up to 80% in half-an-hour.

Despite the overall increase in usage, a quarter of charging points around the country were not used at all during August 2016.

Of 76 charge points in Glasgow, 68 were used in August, while of 68 in Edinburgh only 46 were used at least once during the month.

The lowest usage was in Dumfries and Galloway where just eight of 20 charging points were used in August.

Experts believe sites with rapid chargers are being used more often than others.

The figures were revealed as part of RAC Foundation analysis of data collected from the ChargePlace Scotland network.

The data does not include domestic charge points. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "They say that when it comes to buying a house, location, location, location is everything.

"So it goes with electric charge points. Facilities need to be in places where people will use them.

"But there's something more. The evidence suggests that it is rapid chargers that are getting a disproportionate amount of use, which bears out the view that improving the convenience and speed of 'filling' up with electricity is mission critical to the wider take-up of these vehicles."

WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: "Independent analysis has shown that for Scotland to meet its future climate change targets by 2030 one in three cars, and half of all buses, will need to be electric, in line with the long-term need to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles entirely.

"The Scottish Government's forthcoming energy strategy and climate action plans provide the ideal opportunities to bring forward the policies needed to deliver such a transformation."