EV Charging in Scotland: Part 1

Scotland is home to one of the most comprehensive networks of electric vehicle charge points in Europe. Residents here are, on average, 2.8 miles away from their nearest charge point compared to 3.8 miles south of the border. Scotland currently has over 1,700 chargers and almost one quarter of these are rapid chargers. Moreover, with around £10 million being spent on charging infrastructure in Scotland in the past year, the SNP government are investing almost twice as much as Westminster are spending on the entire UK.

The Scottish government have made no secret of their green energy targets for the future. Glasgow and Edinburgh have a target of net-zero emissions by 2030 and new petrol and diesel cars could be banned as early as 2032. Moreover, the two central belt cities still intend on introducing new low emission zones, albeit delayed as a result of Covid-19. That said, we have discussed both Glasgow and Edinburgh before on this blog and we believe the rest of Scotland should be given equal credit.

Firstly, as mentioned last week, Perth has outlined ambitious plans to become the ‘most sustainable small city in Europe’. Along with the new carbon-neutral Perth West project, Perth & Kinross Council have introduced free parking for electric vehicles and have approved private investment in multiple charge point locations across the council area. Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE, who are headquartered in Perth and provide thousands of jobs for Perthshire residents, has urged the Prime Minister to approve ‘billions of pounds’ of private investment across the UK.

Another city which is undergoing a major regeneration project is Dundee. The city at the mouth of the Tay river has invested over £1 billion to regenerate the waterfront. In the first year alone, the new V&A museum brought 830,000 new visitors to the city. In conjunction with the new investment in tourism, the city aims to improve infrastructure for the locals. £700k is to be spent on a new co-working office space, the city’s public transport network is set to be overhauled and £500k will be invested in electric vehicle charging infrastructure

Aberdeen’s oil industry connections may seem add odds with Scotland’s net zero targets but the city, and surrounding area, have been enthusiastic adopters of green energy and electric travel. The council have been working closely with the University of Aberdeen to develop a 5-year plan for investment in electric travel infrastructure. Moreover, around £3 million is to be spent over the next few years to create cycling and car-sharing schemes across Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Finally, nestled in the centre of Scotland, Stirling has also been central to Scotland’s green travel transition. With many longer-distance journey makers passing in and around the area, extensive investment is planned to create a charging network of over 100 bays funded by the £2.2 million award from the Switched-on Towns and Cities Challenge Fund. A further £1.5 million will also be invested to create Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging hub of more than 60 charge points at Castleview Park and Ride by the end of 2020.

As you can see, Scotland’s investment has been spread across all geographical regions and not just its main economic centres. Take a look at the attached appendix to see how your council area is performing compared to others. In our next post, we will look at the electric vehicle infrastructure in Scotland’s towns, villages and rural areas.

If you are an individual, business owner or fleet manager in Scotland and you are considering switching to electric, please get in touch. A member of our team would be happy to any questions that you have. Call us on 0141 280 8890 or drop us an email at info@britetechnicalservices.co.uk.

We also have a variety of platforms available with extensive information about electric vehicles (brite-ev.com), EV chargepoints (evchargepoints.com) and EV accessories (briteaccessories.com).

Appendix:

(All information obtained from Compare the Market’s EV charging hotspots data)