The streets of Birmingham could soon be lined with almost 200 electric taxi charging points in a bid to encourage drivers to ditch their polluting petrol and diesel cars.

Birmingham City Council has been given a £2.9 million Department for Transport grant to install the charging points.

There will be two super charging points at Tyseley Energy Park , off the A45, and at Birmingham New Street Stations Ellis Street car park where black cabs queue for commuters.

Seven more locations have been earmarked including Star City in Nechells, Digbeth Coach Station, the QE Hospital and Sheepcote Street, near Brindleyplace.

And more charging points will be scattered around the A4040 Outer Ring Road, on or near to the main arterial routes into Birmingham and will be made available to private hire cars, as well as Hackney Carriages.

Electric taxis being built at the London Taxi Company plant at Ansty

Birmingham City Council has been ordered to take steps to reduce the dangerously high levels of pollution by 20201 or face a £60 million fine. Plans are already advanced for a clean air zone under which high polluting vans, lorries and coaches will be charged to enter the city centre.

The council last month threatened to revoke licences for 500 older high polluting cabs by the end of the year and are in talks with the trade, which has objected to the short-notice given to drivers.

Birmingham’s taxi fleet currently numbers 1,229 Hackney carriages and 4,060 private hire vehicles, and the council is working towards a 50 per cent uptake of ultra-low or zero-emissions vehicles across the entire fleet by 2020.

Cllr Lisa Trickett, cabinet member with responsibility for air quality at Birmingham City Council, said: “Everyone living and working in the city has the right to clean air and our taxi fleet will play a key role in helping us to achieve this, so I am absolutely delighted that we have been successful in our bid for this crucial funding.

Nitrogen dioxide levels are too high in Birmingham.

“We have worked closely with taxi drivers to identify these charge point locations, ensuring that they will benefit those working in the outer city suburban areas as well as those in the city centre itself. This will also take forward the work we have already been doing to retrofit 65 of our Hackney carriages with LPG engines.

“Of course, we also recognise that replacing a vehicle like this represents a significant expense for taxi drivers, which is why we will be looking at the support available to facilitate this. We have also been lobbying the Government, calling on ministers to work with us to help ensure that we are able to meet our air quality obligations without unfairly penalising those who rely on their vehicles for their income.”

This latest announcement comes at the same time as news of the opening of a new £300 million electric taxi factory in Coventry , which will create 1,000 jobs in the region.