A scheme to increase the number of people using a car-sharing club has easily beaten its target two years ahead of schedule.

The City Car Club fleet in Bath has taken delivery of six new Toyota Prius hybrid cars, paid for as part of a £5.6 million package of European Commission funding for transport schemes in the city.

Added to investment from the firm itself, the Civitas Renaissance Project has meant a total of around £240,000 is being spent over five years on new cars, extra dedicated parking spaces, and marketing.

The project - which will also pay for work on a new freight depot and a cycle hire scheme - has set the firm the target of doubling the 2007 usage of its pay-as-you-go fleet of cars.

But already membership has leapt from 100 to 300, with the project set to run until 2012.

The extra cars boost the size of the fleet to 15 and coincide with the launch of six new parking bays where they will be housed when not in use - at the Circus, St James's Square, Sion Hill, St Michael's Road in Lower Weston, Bathwick Hill and Sydney Place.

Members pay an annual fee and can book cars for use at any time of the day or night, either at a moment's notice or months in advance via the website www.citycarclub.co.uk

The Civitas project is testing whether environmental transport schemes can work in heritage cities across Europe - with money also being invested in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Macedonia.

City Car Club managing director James Finlayson said: "Demand and uptake of our car club service in Bath is at an all-time high so these new hybrid cars and locations will make the service far more accessible to both residents and businesses across the city. The cars are brilliant to drive and are the most fuel-efficient and lowest carbon-emitting on the market."

The firm's manager for Bath and Bristol, Richard Drew, said of the target: "We've already done it, but we reckon we can almost double what we are on now."

He said the difficulty of finding conventional parking spaces in and around the centre of Bath had been a factor in the club's growth.

"There is additional pressure on parking in Bath and the fleet is very well used."

According to a recent survey, each such shared car takes nearly 25 privately-owned vehicles off the road and members of such clubs are involved in 35 per cent fewer journeys than non-members.

The Bath fleet is credited with an annual total reduction of 370 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of 132 flights to Australia.