Scotland set to supercharge its EV charging network

The Scottish Government has published its Draft Electric Vehicle Public Charging Network Implementation Plan, revealing its ambition to deliver in the region of 24,000 public EV chargepoints by 2030.

This would represent a fivefold increase on the 6,000 chargepoints that currently exist north of the border.

Research commissioned by KPMG suggests that Scotland will need between 22,000 and 30,000 public chargepoints by the end of this decade, depending on technology, levels of car use, and the speed of EV adoption.

It is expected that the bulk of this will be funded by the private sector which is expected to invest between £40 million and £55 million in public EV charging infrastructure in Scotland this year, with consultations suggesting that considerable levels of investment is planned for the future.

Primarily, the government will be looking to the private sector to invest in locations with lower traffic volumes, including parts of Scotland’s trunk road network in far north and west coast of Scotland, as well locations where grid connection costs are higher, such as the more rural parts of the country.

To persuade the private sector to invest in these lower traffic site, the government recognise that it may need to identify ways to reduce network connection costs by looking at battery storage and/or on-site power generation to avoid the need for higher voltage connections and substations back to the grid.

Another priority is near-home and on-street slow charging to support the 40% of homes across Scotland lack which lack access to off-street parking. Cross-pavement parking has been used in Scotland but a consistent, country-wide approach is being sought to overcome issues such as  including planning, maintenance, liability and how solutions interact with existing utilities planning.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop. said: ‘Transport remains the largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions and EVs enable drivers to take climate action and cutting harmful emissions. We need to ensure that people from all parts of Scotland can benefit from this switch to EVs, so that no one and no part of the country is left behind.

‘We have already seen significant growth in the level of private sector investment in the public charging infrastructure essential to support the transition to EVs. This draft plan outlines how the private sector will take on a leading role, it sets out the actions necessary for us to realise the ambition of our Vision, which is to give Scotland a well-designed, accessible, comprehensive, and convenient public charging network that works for everyone. Our consultation is now open – and I would encourage anyone with an interest in electric vehicles and public charging to have their say and to help inform our finalised implementation plan which we will publish next year.’